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Mother's Milk
Mother's Milk examines why nursing a baby is an ideologically charged experience in contemporary culture. Drawing upon medical studies, feminist scholarship, anthropological literature, and an intimate knowledge of breastfeeding itself, Bernice Hausman demonstrates what is at stake in mothers' infant feeding choices--economically, socially, and in terms of women's rights. Breastfeeding controversies, she argues, reveal social tensions around the meaning of women's bodies, the authority of science, and the value of maternity in American culture. A provocative and multi-faceted work, Mother's Milk will be of interest to anyone concerned with the politics of women's embodiment.
288 pages, Paperback
First published June 17, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 23, 2008
An excellent book for any lactivist, or anyone interested in the female experience as it pertains to our role as mothers. Formula-feeders would not like this book, and oh well, the truth hurts!
August 5, 2013
The author described the conflicting attitudes of breastfeeding advocates and feminist critics very well, highlighting how this poses a problem for everyday women and leads to "Mommy Wars", something very topical in today's media. Her discussion of breastfeeding issues for Black and poor women was especially helpful for me as an educator, as I have no personal experience with that topic, and it gave me motivation to learn more about it. Her description of media's portrayals of Insufficient Milk Syndrome was especially interesting to me, as a person who works in media, and while the stories and examples were a little out of date to use in a class (shows and magazines from the '90s), it is possible they could come in useful.
I found the author's tone and writing style very difficult to read. It took until the end of the over 200-page book to understand her overall point; her initial thesis was written in such abstract terms, it took a complete deconstruction of the sentence to understand her point -- and even then, it did not seem to match her overall argument once I had finished the book. She claimed the book was for mothers (as well as for doctors, educators, advocates, etc.), but I would be surprised if most mothers would find her style accessible. The book seemed aimed more for educators and advocates than for breastfeeding mothers. As she states herself, mothers need practical advice and real social support from doctors, other mothers, and the workforce; mothers do not need ideology. As this book is mainly focused on discussions of culture and the ideological meaning of women's bodies, it seems as the book itself is an example of what would be unhelpful to an everyday nursing mother.
While the author clearly did her research on feminist theory and breastfeeding benefits, she seems to only site a few sources. She also has a clear bias towards La Leche League, and implies that they are the only breastfeeding advocates out there. It would have been nice to see an analysis of other advocates' texts as well.
Finally, while the author made a good attempt at an overall flow of the book (chapter one discussed public media, chapter two physicians, chapter three texts for parents, etc.), there were times when her discussions seemed random and not fitting to the chapter as a whole (for example, the discussion of the sexuality of motherhood and breastfeeding in the chapter about physicians, authority, and scientific motherhood seemed, while interesting on its own, a bit out of place).
The author (eventually) made an excellent point about bridging the gap between breastfeeding advocates and feminist critics by encouraging "Health Advocacy" instead of breastfeeding advocacy. This perspective will help to keep the health benefits of breastfeeding part of the discussion, encourage practical advice, and reduce the judgement of women who choose not to breastfeed.
While it may be difficult to incorporate all the complex cultural arguments brought up by the author in a childbirth ed class, she uses some great examples of the practical difficulties mothers face when breastfeeding (for example, the way pregnancy books discuss feeding schedules, the bottle-feeding paradigm of our culture, etc.), which could help spark a conversation in an Infant Care or Breastfeeding class. Her descriptions of the realistic decisions mothers make in feeding their children will help me, as an educator, respect my students' individual situations and help them clarify their own goals instead of imposing my own views on them.
I found the author's tone and writing style very difficult to read. It took until the end of the over 200-page book to understand her overall point; her initial thesis was written in such abstract terms, it took a complete deconstruction of the sentence to understand her point -- and even then, it did not seem to match her overall argument once I had finished the book. She claimed the book was for mothers (as well as for doctors, educators, advocates, etc.), but I would be surprised if most mothers would find her style accessible. The book seemed aimed more for educators and advocates than for breastfeeding mothers. As she states herself, mothers need practical advice and real social support from doctors, other mothers, and the workforce; mothers do not need ideology. As this book is mainly focused on discussions of culture and the ideological meaning of women's bodies, it seems as the book itself is an example of what would be unhelpful to an everyday nursing mother.
While the author clearly did her research on feminist theory and breastfeeding benefits, she seems to only site a few sources. She also has a clear bias towards La Leche League, and implies that they are the only breastfeeding advocates out there. It would have been nice to see an analysis of other advocates' texts as well.
Finally, while the author made a good attempt at an overall flow of the book (chapter one discussed public media, chapter two physicians, chapter three texts for parents, etc.), there were times when her discussions seemed random and not fitting to the chapter as a whole (for example, the discussion of the sexuality of motherhood and breastfeeding in the chapter about physicians, authority, and scientific motherhood seemed, while interesting on its own, a bit out of place).
The author (eventually) made an excellent point about bridging the gap between breastfeeding advocates and feminist critics by encouraging "Health Advocacy" instead of breastfeeding advocacy. This perspective will help to keep the health benefits of breastfeeding part of the discussion, encourage practical advice, and reduce the judgement of women who choose not to breastfeed.
While it may be difficult to incorporate all the complex cultural arguments brought up by the author in a childbirth ed class, she uses some great examples of the practical difficulties mothers face when breastfeeding (for example, the way pregnancy books discuss feeding schedules, the bottle-feeding paradigm of our culture, etc.), which could help spark a conversation in an Infant Care or Breastfeeding class. Her descriptions of the realistic decisions mothers make in feeding their children will help me, as an educator, respect my students' individual situations and help them clarify their own goals instead of imposing my own views on them.
May 11, 2008
body as (poorly manufactured) machine with complicated-ly contradictory instruction manuals.
January 6, 2011
Very helpful while breastfeeding.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews