This study aims to understand the meanings ascribed by a group of women from Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo State, to their experiences with breastfeeding in relation to the sensations and manifestations in their own bodies as well as those they perceive in their children. The phenomenon was viewed as integrated with value systems related to motherhood and the body. The research methodology was qualitative. Participants included twenty primiparous women who had given birth less than 30 days previously who came to primary health care clinics due to various complaints. The analysis of interviews and observations was based on the thematic modality of content analysis. For these women, breastfeeding means to be a good mother and to give the best of oneself to the child. In breastfeeding practice, among limits and possibilities, they measure what they consider a "problem" based on the perceived manifestations in their own bodies and especially in those of their children. Their concerns are based on harm and danger to which they expose the child. Such experiences play out at the limits of being: the body for the child and the body for oneself, thereby establishing a sharp conflict between motherhood and individuality.