What do you think?
Rate this book
Skimmed: Breastfeeding, Race, and Injustice
Born into a tenant farming family in North Carolina in 1946, Mary Louise, Mary Ann, Mary Alice, and Mary Catherine were medical miracles. Annie Mae Fultz, a Black-Cherokee woman who lost her ability to hear and speak in childhood, became the mother of America's first surviving set of identical quadruplets. They were instant celebrities. Their White doctor named them after his own family members. He sold the rights to use the sisters for marketing purposes to the highest-bidding formula company. The girls lived in poverty, while Pet Milk's profits from a previously untapped market of Black families skyrocketed.
Over half a century later, baby formula is a seventy-billion-dollar industry and Black mothers have the lowest breastfeeding rates in the country. Since slavery, legal, political, and societal factors have routinely denied Black women the ability to choose how to feed their babies. In Skimmed, Andrea Freeman tells the riveting story of the Fultz quadruplets while uncovering how feeding America's youngest citizens is awash in social, legal, and cultural inequalities. This book highlights the making of a modern public health crisis, the four extraordinary girls whose stories encapsulate a nationwide injustice, and how we can fight for a healthier future.
Over half a century later, baby formula is a seventy-billion-dollar industry and Black mothers have the lowest breastfeeding rates in the country. Since slavery, legal, political, and societal factors have routinely denied Black women the ability to choose how to feed their babies. In Skimmed, Andrea Freeman tells the riveting story of the Fultz quadruplets while uncovering how feeding America's youngest citizens is awash in social, legal, and cultural inequalities. This book highlights the making of a modern public health crisis, the four extraordinary girls whose stories encapsulate a nationwide injustice, and how we can fight for a healthier future.
Audiobook
Published August 18, 2020
50 people are currently reading
1024 people want to read
About the author
Andrea Freeman
18 books49 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
June 15, 2021
I was so excited about this book, but ended up so disappointed by it that I didn't even finish it. I am a neonatal dietitian and certified lactation counselor, so I quickly identified multiple claims the author made as misleading or blatantly false, including:
-The claim on page 116 that WIC stops providing free infant formula for infants older than 6 months old, which is completely false (and easily verifiable on the USDA website: https://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/wic-food...)
-The claim on page 112 that "if breastfeeding reached near universal levels, it would prevent more than eight hundred thousand deaths a year worldwide". Okay, sure, but most of these deaths are related to dirty water that's mixed with powdered formula, rather than the lack of immune benefits from breast milk, as the author implies
-The discussion on page 160 of Prolacta Bioscience, a for-profit milk bank, implies that the author doesn't understand the purpose of Prolacta's human-milk-based human milk fortifiers. She implies that Prolacta sells its products to the general public at a huge markup, thus contributing to inequitable access for donated breast milk. I don't dispute the huge markup, but these products are sold to hospitals to use on tiny premature babies. They're not for the general public. I don't know of a single hospital that refuses to give Prolacta products to infants whose parents can't afford it - typically they are paid for by hospital budgets or by public or private insurance.
The book would have benefited greatly from peer review by an infant nutrition expert. I agree with the author's argument that racism has negatively affected Black infants' nutrition and in many cases has taken away Black mothers' ability to choose how they will feed their infants, but with so many inaccuracies it's hard to trust the other facts she presents in the book.
Aside from the inaccuracies, I was frustrated by the lack of nuance in her support of breastfeeding and demonization of infant formula. It's a really complicated issue! There is a lot that's bad about infant formula companies and their unethical marketing tactics. But some mothers just don't want to breastfeed and that is a completely valid choice.
-The claim on page 116 that WIC stops providing free infant formula for infants older than 6 months old, which is completely false (and easily verifiable on the USDA website: https://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/wic-food...)
-The claim on page 112 that "if breastfeeding reached near universal levels, it would prevent more than eight hundred thousand deaths a year worldwide". Okay, sure, but most of these deaths are related to dirty water that's mixed with powdered formula, rather than the lack of immune benefits from breast milk, as the author implies
-The discussion on page 160 of Prolacta Bioscience, a for-profit milk bank, implies that the author doesn't understand the purpose of Prolacta's human-milk-based human milk fortifiers. She implies that Prolacta sells its products to the general public at a huge markup, thus contributing to inequitable access for donated breast milk. I don't dispute the huge markup, but these products are sold to hospitals to use on tiny premature babies. They're not for the general public. I don't know of a single hospital that refuses to give Prolacta products to infants whose parents can't afford it - typically they are paid for by hospital budgets or by public or private insurance.
The book would have benefited greatly from peer review by an infant nutrition expert. I agree with the author's argument that racism has negatively affected Black infants' nutrition and in many cases has taken away Black mothers' ability to choose how they will feed their infants, but with so many inaccuracies it's hard to trust the other facts she presents in the book.
Aside from the inaccuracies, I was frustrated by the lack of nuance in her support of breastfeeding and demonization of infant formula. It's a really complicated issue! There is a lot that's bad about infant formula companies and their unethical marketing tactics. But some mothers just don't want to breastfeed and that is a completely valid choice.
February 5, 2025
Only book I've found so far on the Fultz sisters.
February 26, 2020
This was an intense book about a very important subject. Andrea Freeman certainly did her research. Every chapter has about 200 notations, and yet the text is very readable and makes you curious about what happens next.
I had never heard of the Fultz quadruplets before and now I will never forget them. This book also opened my eyes to many more levels of systemic racism and how they interact to make breast-feeding more difficult for Black parents.
I thought originally that this book would be similar to “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” where an author goes in great detail about the medical injustices committed by a white doctor against a Black woman and her family.
There is definitely that aspect. The odd numbered chapters focus on Dr. Klenner and the many ways that he and his family harmed the Fultz quadruplets and their family, with the help of Pet Milk.
But in between those details, the author tells us about all the prejudices surrounding Black parents and their children, with a special focus on why breast-feeding is less popular and more difficult Black parents. (The author does note in the beginning that more than just women may breast-feed, although most of her sources only used the term “women“.)
(CW: racism, medical experimentation without permission, slavery, forced family separation, Black people as exhibits, exploitation of Black people, police killings of Black people, Racism against Black people in the workplace)
I had never heard of the Fultz quadruplets before and now I will never forget them. This book also opened my eyes to many more levels of systemic racism and how they interact to make breast-feeding more difficult for Black parents.
I thought originally that this book would be similar to “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” where an author goes in great detail about the medical injustices committed by a white doctor against a Black woman and her family.
There is definitely that aspect. The odd numbered chapters focus on Dr. Klenner and the many ways that he and his family harmed the Fultz quadruplets and their family, with the help of Pet Milk.
But in between those details, the author tells us about all the prejudices surrounding Black parents and their children, with a special focus on why breast-feeding is less popular and more difficult Black parents. (The author does note in the beginning that more than just women may breast-feed, although most of her sources only used the term “women“.)
(CW: racism, medical experimentation without permission, slavery, forced family separation, Black people as exhibits, exploitation of Black people, police killings of Black people, Racism against Black people in the workplace)
April 1, 2021
This book helped me reflect and see what’s in plain sight how capitalism's racism and inequality methods through its baby formula business policies on the African American Woman and Children continues the exploitation and oppression of a community, since the US foundation. This state apparatus and its tentacles must be abolished, and we must defend what is the backbone of our communities, women, and children. This is a must-read if you want to understand a parasitic feature of capitalism.
July 22, 2025
I confess that helpless rage was my most frequent emotion while reading Andrea Freeman’s wonderful book Skimmed: Breastfeeding, Race, and Injustice: rage over the blatant and brazen racism targeting Black mothers once they gave birth; and rage over the egregious exploitation of the Fultz family in general and their famous quadruplets in particular.
Ms. Freeman's narrative covers the history of infant feeding in the United States from a racial perspective, and its “lasting impact on Black mothers, documenting changes in infant feeding practices associated with Emancipation, Reconstruction, and the Great Migration of Blacks from the South to the North between 1915 and 1970.” She identifies the emergence of the field of pediatrics and the accompanying attitudes towards women’s and physician’s roles in infant feeding.
At the heart of her story are the unfolding lives of the Fultz sister quadruplets born in 1946, who were highly-controlled from their earliest days, beginning with the unscrupulous Dr. Fred Klenner, an avowed and unapologetic racist, who delivered the Fultz quads in the basement of the segregated Annie Penn Memorial Hospital. With the quads’ birth, Klenner quickly saw self-serving opportunity: first, to enrich himself; and second to pursue his crackpot theory “that vitamin C could cure polio and twenty-nine other diseases.”
Klenner’s opportunism capitalized on the fact that the quads’ parents, Annie Mae and Pete Fultz already had six children, and were at a loss to see how they could support four more. As tenant farmers in North Carolina, they lived primitively at poverty level with no electricity. That even triplets would survive in those days was rare, so when the Fultz quads were born, seemingly with bubbling, healthy indications to live, they achieved immediate celebrity status. Klenner not only hijacked baby-naming privileges from the parents (naming them after his own family members), but also auctioned to the highest-bidding baby formula company, Pet Milk, the rights for use of the quads in marketing its product.
The quads’ story is bittersweet at best. Although they got modest financial support for schooling, and the parents also got an unattractive land handout and financial help with care for the quads, it still amounted to a benign kidnapping. And though the four sisters received periodic pacifying gifts, their lives and schooling were utterly fragmented with contractual commitments to the Pet Milk company, not to mention a burdensome schedule for Dr. Klenner's vitamin C shots. This afforded them only lackluster academic progress.
Ms. Freeman succeeds enormously in weaving “together the story of the Fultz sisters with a legal, political, cultural, and social analysis of low breastfeeding rates in the Black community.” But she does much more that triggers my rage at injustices perpetrated on Black people in general, and Black mothers in particular. She describes the history of race-based marketing of infant formula to Black women from the 1940s to the present; she enlightens my inexcusable ignorance of the horrible stereotyping of the Bad Black Mother; and she describes the many obstacles—legal, political, and practical—faced by Black motherhood desirous of breastfeeding.
Ms. Freeman concludes her narrative with a suggested multipronged attack on “racial disparities in breastfeeding,” which includes: constitutional-based litigation to expand existing protections; legislation to create generous leave policies; lobbying for free and accessible universal daycare; related lobbying for the protection of breastfeeding at work and in public; championing the abolition of formula marketing to new mothers; and spearheading a social movement that will push for radical reform in social structures and a reimagination of gender roles and work life balance. Skimmed is such an urgent, important book that I believe Ms. Freeman would have been well within her rights to use fewer courteous should’s and more forceful must’s, morphing her suggestions into imperatives for change.
The exhaustively-researched book provides an extensive bibliography, an absolute delight to people like me, who trawl through such references for other interesting selections with which to expand and enrich my reading list. Once readers have consumed this five-star book, I highly recommend Ms. Freeman’s other equally-rated work, Ruin Their Crops on the Ground: The Politics of Food in the United States, from the Trail of Tears to School Lunch.
Ms. Freeman's narrative covers the history of infant feeding in the United States from a racial perspective, and its “lasting impact on Black mothers, documenting changes in infant feeding practices associated with Emancipation, Reconstruction, and the Great Migration of Blacks from the South to the North between 1915 and 1970.” She identifies the emergence of the field of pediatrics and the accompanying attitudes towards women’s and physician’s roles in infant feeding.
At the heart of her story are the unfolding lives of the Fultz sister quadruplets born in 1946, who were highly-controlled from their earliest days, beginning with the unscrupulous Dr. Fred Klenner, an avowed and unapologetic racist, who delivered the Fultz quads in the basement of the segregated Annie Penn Memorial Hospital. With the quads’ birth, Klenner quickly saw self-serving opportunity: first, to enrich himself; and second to pursue his crackpot theory “that vitamin C could cure polio and twenty-nine other diseases.”
Klenner’s opportunism capitalized on the fact that the quads’ parents, Annie Mae and Pete Fultz already had six children, and were at a loss to see how they could support four more. As tenant farmers in North Carolina, they lived primitively at poverty level with no electricity. That even triplets would survive in those days was rare, so when the Fultz quads were born, seemingly with bubbling, healthy indications to live, they achieved immediate celebrity status. Klenner not only hijacked baby-naming privileges from the parents (naming them after his own family members), but also auctioned to the highest-bidding baby formula company, Pet Milk, the rights for use of the quads in marketing its product.
The quads’ story is bittersweet at best. Although they got modest financial support for schooling, and the parents also got an unattractive land handout and financial help with care for the quads, it still amounted to a benign kidnapping. And though the four sisters received periodic pacifying gifts, their lives and schooling were utterly fragmented with contractual commitments to the Pet Milk company, not to mention a burdensome schedule for Dr. Klenner's vitamin C shots. This afforded them only lackluster academic progress.
Ms. Freeman succeeds enormously in weaving “together the story of the Fultz sisters with a legal, political, cultural, and social analysis of low breastfeeding rates in the Black community.” But she does much more that triggers my rage at injustices perpetrated on Black people in general, and Black mothers in particular. She describes the history of race-based marketing of infant formula to Black women from the 1940s to the present; she enlightens my inexcusable ignorance of the horrible stereotyping of the Bad Black Mother; and she describes the many obstacles—legal, political, and practical—faced by Black motherhood desirous of breastfeeding.
Ms. Freeman concludes her narrative with a suggested multipronged attack on “racial disparities in breastfeeding,” which includes: constitutional-based litigation to expand existing protections; legislation to create generous leave policies; lobbying for free and accessible universal daycare; related lobbying for the protection of breastfeeding at work and in public; championing the abolition of formula marketing to new mothers; and spearheading a social movement that will push for radical reform in social structures and a reimagination of gender roles and work life balance. Skimmed is such an urgent, important book that I believe Ms. Freeman would have been well within her rights to use fewer courteous should’s and more forceful must’s, morphing her suggestions into imperatives for change.
The exhaustively-researched book provides an extensive bibliography, an absolute delight to people like me, who trawl through such references for other interesting selections with which to expand and enrich my reading list. Once readers have consumed this five-star book, I highly recommend Ms. Freeman’s other equally-rated work, Ruin Their Crops on the Ground: The Politics of Food in the United States, from the Trail of Tears to School Lunch.
July 15, 2021
LOVED the analysis in this libro presenting the billion dollar formula industry and the way it deceptively interrupts the sacred act of breastfeeding between women and their babies, sowing doubt, insecurities, bad health ALL in the name of capitalism and greed - raking in profits on the backs of women of color and their children. The corrupt trifecta of capitalists, medical professionals and government programs is exposed - and a call to reject the racist narratives of mothers of color is demanded. We must understand the structural causes that continue to harm and oppress women, with their roots in slavery, and demand an end to a system that only continues to dehumanize us in the most catastrophic ways.
March 18, 2020
The level of greed that fuels corruption and policy making in this country infuriates me!! I’m a NC native and I had never heard this story. This book is not only about the nations’s first surviving set of quadruplets and how bankrupt character, greed, political and corporate corruption corruption and policies based based on perpetuated tropes and stereotypes of black women literally allowed people to rip them from their family and ruin their lives- medically, academically and emotionally.
No, this is also a comprehensive presentation of how big business, our government and the ever foreboding remnants of slavery’s engrained beliefs about black women STILL manipulate black women and communities, take advantage of, legally coerce and otherwise manhandle them into making less safe choices for their infants often times without them/US even realizing it!! Through doctors, lack of lactation support, and a multitude of other ways.
This book reveals the real reason why our govt is so invested in formula, just much money they make from it, what they use to make it, the kickbacks the doctors get, and how it all disproportionately impacts black women and infants.
DO NOT MISUNDERSTAND ME - this is not a slam against any woman who can not (for whatever reason) breastfeed their child. It is, however, a slam against the greedy heart of this country that takes away (often times) your ability to make an informed choice about how to feed your baby. It is a slam against the protocols and procedures set in place by self serving politicians that rotate in and out of Washington to serving as presidents and board members of these formula companies. It’s a slam against these formula companies that buy doctors - fund their university research, pay medical school “scholarships,” pay for buildings to be erected and for the “scientific results” and policies to be written in their favor. ALL For the purposes of deception and greed and who cares if it’s to the detriment of black women?? BLACK WOMEN DO BREASTFEED. I am one. Do not be deceived, do not be deterred, do not be intimidated. Make informed decisions. READ THIS BOOK!!
No, this is also a comprehensive presentation of how big business, our government and the ever foreboding remnants of slavery’s engrained beliefs about black women STILL manipulate black women and communities, take advantage of, legally coerce and otherwise manhandle them into making less safe choices for their infants often times without them/US even realizing it!! Through doctors, lack of lactation support, and a multitude of other ways.
This book reveals the real reason why our govt is so invested in formula, just much money they make from it, what they use to make it, the kickbacks the doctors get, and how it all disproportionately impacts black women and infants.
DO NOT MISUNDERSTAND ME - this is not a slam against any woman who can not (for whatever reason) breastfeed their child. It is, however, a slam against the greedy heart of this country that takes away (often times) your ability to make an informed choice about how to feed your baby. It is a slam against the protocols and procedures set in place by self serving politicians that rotate in and out of Washington to serving as presidents and board members of these formula companies. It’s a slam against these formula companies that buy doctors - fund their university research, pay medical school “scholarships,” pay for buildings to be erected and for the “scientific results” and policies to be written in their favor. ALL For the purposes of deception and greed and who cares if it’s to the detriment of black women?? BLACK WOMEN DO BREASTFEED. I am one. Do not be deceived, do not be deterred, do not be intimidated. Make informed decisions. READ THIS BOOK!!
April 10, 2020
This is a disturbing book about the reasons that African Americans are less likely to breastfeed. All the injustices that have been put upon them in all areas of their lives as well as in the area of breastfeeding were just so depressing that there were some days where I could not read the book, especially during the COVID19 pandemic.
The sterotypes of black mothers were especially depressing, like Mammy and Jezebel.
Some of the information on groups that are encouraging blacks to breastfeed was very helpful.
The sterotypes of black mothers were especially depressing, like Mammy and Jezebel.
Some of the information on groups that are encouraging blacks to breastfeed was very helpful.
May 31, 2024
I wanted to like this book, I really really did. But the author makes some factual errors when it comes to her medical information, which made me have doubts about the validity and accuracy of her other claims that I don’t have as much background on. The trust as a reader was someone broken and made it difficult to carry on.
December 6, 2021
I was so excited to read this book. I'm very interested in the interaction between race and breastfeeding and want to help mommas of all races and backgrounds in their motherhood journeys.
I was sadly disappointed by this book. I expected a cohesive story of the Fultz Sisters and a full and practical discussion of how breastfeeding mothers of color face extra challenges and how these can be overcome through awareness, education, and support. The story of the Fultz Sisters is split up throughout the book, making it very challenging to follow details. The challenges of black breastfeeding mothers were discussed but their needs were grossly overshadowed by the author's political ideologies. It was a real struggle to finish this book because it was so blatantly progressive. I fully respect the right people with progressive political views have to express them. But these views commandeered a story that truly does need to be told and used it for it's own agendas, the very thing it says the formula company did wrongfully to the Fultz Sisters. I am very disappointed in this book.
I want to continue to pursue learning more about race and breastfeeding, but this book was of no help and I won't be recommending it.
I was sadly disappointed by this book. I expected a cohesive story of the Fultz Sisters and a full and practical discussion of how breastfeeding mothers of color face extra challenges and how these can be overcome through awareness, education, and support. The story of the Fultz Sisters is split up throughout the book, making it very challenging to follow details. The challenges of black breastfeeding mothers were discussed but their needs were grossly overshadowed by the author's political ideologies. It was a real struggle to finish this book because it was so blatantly progressive. I fully respect the right people with progressive political views have to express them. But these views commandeered a story that truly does need to be told and used it for it's own agendas, the very thing it says the formula company did wrongfully to the Fultz Sisters. I am very disappointed in this book.
I want to continue to pursue learning more about race and breastfeeding, but this book was of no help and I won't be recommending it.
August 5, 2020
Theft of a story that isn’t yours to tell is still colonialism. If the people involved don’t want to talk to you, and you take from other authors without consent or appropriate remuneration, it’s theft. Disappointing that this family was exploited yet again.
February 24, 2020
This book is excellent. A well researched and engaging exploration of a seemingly under-explored area of discrimination. Freeman weaves a thought provoking read.
August 13, 2025
3.5 stars, rounded up to 4. This book was a mixed bag. It was engrossing, infuriating, and informative. I was very moved and disturbed by the Fultz sisters story, particularly the repeated trauma of separating mothers from their babies. I was equally shocked and brought to tears. The chapter on the formula industry and their advertising was particularly interesting, as well as the chapter on international laws around formula marketing, breastfeeding freedoms, and workplace accommodations. I also found the background on the history of enslaved wet nurses to white, slave owners’ babies to be a crucial part of the picture.
Freeman could have been more nuanced in her discussion of formula and the choice surrounding how to feed your infant. I have read some other reviews that found errors in the book around some fundamental claims, like WIC only providing formula for 6 months when in fact it’s 12 months, etc. She also doesn’t clarify that most of the health concerns or deaths associated with formula are related to people mixing formula with dirty water. If she had another chapter specifically on the nutritional differences and health outcomes between formula and breastmilk, it would have strengthened the book. My guess is that this is a tricky area for clinical trials and hard data and it would be tough to prove causation.
As someone who used donated breastmilk through informal milk sharing for my kids, I was really excited to read the brief nod she gave to this relatively uncommon practice. It was the first time I’d read about it in a book and it was represented positively. I did this for both of my babies when they were under 1 year and I needed to supplement my own breastfeeding. In other cultures, “cross nursing” is more common, but it’s basically taboo in the U.S.
As you can see, this book was really mixed. Loved some of it, but it had some serious flaws as well.
Freeman could have been more nuanced in her discussion of formula and the choice surrounding how to feed your infant. I have read some other reviews that found errors in the book around some fundamental claims, like WIC only providing formula for 6 months when in fact it’s 12 months, etc. She also doesn’t clarify that most of the health concerns or deaths associated with formula are related to people mixing formula with dirty water. If she had another chapter specifically on the nutritional differences and health outcomes between formula and breastmilk, it would have strengthened the book. My guess is that this is a tricky area for clinical trials and hard data and it would be tough to prove causation.
As someone who used donated breastmilk through informal milk sharing for my kids, I was really excited to read the brief nod she gave to this relatively uncommon practice. It was the first time I’d read about it in a book and it was represented positively. I did this for both of my babies when they were under 1 year and I needed to supplement my own breastfeeding. In other cultures, “cross nursing” is more common, but it’s basically taboo in the U.S.
As you can see, this book was really mixed. Loved some of it, but it had some serious flaws as well.
February 19, 2020
Well written nonfiction like Skimmed is as riveting to me as any novel. This is a grim and upsetting subject- breastfeeding rates for Black women lag far behind White. The consequences are literally deadly for more mothers and children than is fair or moral. Author Freeman has more than backed up her relentless but valid case. She’s even humanized it with the story of the Fultz Quadruplets of 1946 North Carolina. The girls (and their parents) were taken incredible advantage of by the White doctor who supervised their delivery and then wheedled away financial gain, control, and essentially the quads’ health from their family. He sold their “story” and essentially the babies themselves to the highest bidder, Pet Milk company, who profited immensely using them to market formula to Black families. The doctor was also doing vitamin C injection experiments on them without telling anyone affected! It’s a terribly sad story that reminds me of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks- racism allows hideous things to upend Black lives and the full effects aren’t tallied for decades. Freeman does offer ways we as a society can change policies, laws, and programs to begin making things more equitable and healthy for Black families. The roots of slavery run incredibly deep in the US, and the terrible disservices done disproportionately to Black families are staggering. It’s a daunting, terrifying challenge and I’m not very hopeful much will change for the foreseeable future. Nonetheless, I’m glad I read this book.
October 28, 2020
This is easily one of my favorite books from 2020. This books covers the history of the story of the Fultz Quadruplets and uncovers the many ways that formula companies + their marketing teams as well as bad policy mix to create the perfect storm of stigma around breastfeeding in black communities. As a black woman who is eager to get a certification in breastfeeding counseling, this encouraged me and affirmed my passion for getting the certification. Freeman did a phenomenal job at presenting her thesis. The chapter that captivated me most was one the trope of the bad black mother. It is a sad but prevalent trope that hangs over the head of many black women that already feel inadequate as many mothers do. This book was phenomenal. I would recommend it to anyone who cares about women and children's health!
October 17, 2024
Here we have yet another book that has the potential for something great, but gets lost in its own words. People who explore topics that involve race-focused subjects should spend, at a minimum, equal parts on the discussion of how the subject is racist and solutions on how to effectively address these issues. Too often, the subject matter is interesting and a worthy topic of discussion, but they fall flat on a discussion on where to go from here. Yes, some solutions are discussed in this book, but it’s a glossing over of what you, as the reader, can do about exacting change, or what governments and other industry leaders can do. From a historical context, this book provides new and noteworthy insight into a topic to which I had no previous knowledge save for when I hosted a webinar on this book with the author.
July 4, 2020
Well written, documented, referenced book of facts about food oppression (food deserts), breastfeeding especially among black women, racial discrimination, government policies.... All of this wrapped are the story of the first surviving identical quadruplets. The four black girls were born on 1946 to a deaf and mute mother and a tenant sharecropper father. They were quickly “taken offer” by their doctor, who changed all their names, administered regular Vitamin C injections (an experiment) and eventually arranged for them to live with guardians - away from the family home. The four girls were sponsored by Pet Milk - which was not al all helpful. The mom, who wanted to breastfeed was never given the opportunity. This book is a dissertation into food oppression. Well done!
September 9, 2021
There were several times in the first 50-60 pages that I considered not finishing it. First, after reading the intro, you almost don't need to read the rest. Second, the book smacks of being a dissertation & trying to use as many words as possible, & the overwhelming amount of footnoted sentences (80 pages of notes for a 177-page book). Third, much of the first few pages is practically unreadable, as the author rephrased the same concepts in as many ways as possible: I could barely read 10 pages at a sitting. It got better around page 66 & I continued on, wanting to know more about the quads' story; another thought was just to skip to those parts. But I finished, & hope if it goes to another edition, the author will take a second look at the beginning!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 26, 2022
Lots of good information, though some of the claims about the benefits of breastfeeding were probably overstated, as they popularly are. I particularly liked the legal strategy chapter. The call for social parental support is very correct — breastfeeding as the justification for it feels a little limited, as it could exclude all non-breastfeeding parents and kind of ignores all the early childhood development research supporting things like extended parental leave, material support to parents of young children, etc.
July 24, 2022
A good introduction to the history of racial disparity in breastfeeding across the US. While a bit repetitive at times, it overall presented a well-researched and horrifying picture of the problematic racist and classist practices among formula manufacturers, law makers, and medical establishments in the US. Particularly relevant now during the formula shortage, if you've ever wondered why formula feeding is more common in certain groups of people than others, as well as the ramifications of that tendency on health and bodily autonomy, this is the book for you.
March 2, 2020
in "Skimmed" there are a number of subjects the author writes about: the Fultz quadruplets, Black mothers and breastfeeding (or not), a few companies of artificial milk and their advertisements. while informative and worth the read, the transitions (or not) from one subject to the other made for a jagged read.
good luck
good luck
March 5, 2020
Andrea Freeman did her research. This book has a lot of information. As a doula I appreciate Freeman calling out the formula industry and the government that constantly fails and has poorly treated black mothers. I hope this book encourages mothers to make self-choices not influenced by corporations. Over all amazingly written. Five stars.
January 30, 2025
Andrea Freeman does an amazing job of explaining the story of the Fultz Quadruplets and how the PET Formula company and the doctor who delivered them took over their lives. Then she follows the whole formula industry and how they systematically discriminate against mothers of color. It is fascinating, well written and sad.
November 5, 2021
I learned so much reading this. The story of the quads was jaw dropping…the way they were exploited by Pet Milk and the doctors. I can’t believe I’ve never heard of it. Fantastic analysis of breastfeeding and how it intersects with race. Made me re-think everything I’ve ever heard about formula and breastfeeding.
July 19, 2020
The only downside I see to this book is its omission on breastfeeding rates among Asian and Native women.
December 16, 2020
Every woman should read this. Eye opening.
Read
March 29, 2021A must read!
July 1, 2021
Following the lives of a set of quintuplets adopted by a formula company this book explores the intersections of race and capitalism and the impacts on feeding infants.
November 9, 2021
The scope was just too narrow
January 5, 2022
Very informational about breastfeeding and racism. The parts about the quads reads like a great story. The rest reads like a college essay at times.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews