At the Breast: Ideologies of Breastfeeding and Motherhood in the Contemporary United States

by Linda Blum

Overview

In our ironic, "postfeminist" age few experiences inspire the kind of passions that breastfeeding does. For advocates, breastfeeding is both the only way to supply babies with proper nutrition and the "bond" that cements the mother/child relationship. Mother's milk remains "natural" in a world of genetically modified produce and corporate health care. But is it a realistic option for all women? And can a well-intentioned insistence on the necessity of breastfeeding become just another way to cast some women as bad mothers?

Linda M. Blum is author of Between Feminism and Labor: The Significance of the Comparable Worth Movement. She teaches sociology and women's studies at the University of New Hampshire, and wrote this book while a Bunting Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807021415
Publisher:	Beacon Press
Publication date:	06/09/2000
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Linda M. Blum is author of Between Feminism and Labor: The Significance of the Comparable Worth Movement. She teaches sociology and women's studies at the Univer sity of New Hampshire and lives in Belmont, Massachusetts.

What People are Saying About This

Judith Stacey

This magnificent book rescues the complex, exquisite, and often painful meanings of breastfeeding in the lives of diverse groups of women from popular and scholarly idealization, embarassment, scorn or neglect. Linda Blum has given us a work of rich sustenance and power pertinent to the most significant social and political questions of our times.
— Author of In the Name of the Family

Ellen Ross

In thehands of Linda Blum, breastfeeding is a locus for conversations between women in different race and clas locations about the female body, children's needs, and the legitimizing role of fathers. At the Breast is not only bold and demystifying but also a tolerant and judicious work.
— Author of Love and Toil

Editorial Reviews

At the Breast is feminist research of the highest order, setting a standard for how the work ought to be done. . . What is striking and admirable about [Blum's] analysis is that in a discussion that has been almost entirely subsumed in concerns about what is best for babies, Blum focuses unwaveringly on mothers, on women as minded social beings. —Barbara Katz Rothman, American Journal of Sociology

"[Blum] discovers that in the contemporary world such an ancient and seemingly natural procedure as breastfeeding is embedded in a plethora of historical, political, racial, and economic contexts. . . . For the modern feminist, Blum concludes, the choice between the bottle or the breast should proceed from a careful assessment of the woman's own needs and desires." —Kirkus Reviews

"In the hands of Linda Blum, breastfeeding is a locus for conversations between women in different race and class locations about the female body, children's needs, and the legitimizing role of fathers." —Ellen Ross, author of Love and Toil: Motherhood in Outcast London, 1870-1918

"At the Breast is sociology at its best-we think of breastfeeding as 'natural' but of course it is social and cultural too. Blum's discussion of how race and class shape women's attitudes toward breastfeeding-and their chances of success with it-was a revelation to me." —Katha Pollitt, columnist, The Nation

From the Publisher

Breastfeeding is usually considered a part of child rearing and a method of providing nutrition; this book by a sociologist examines it from a different perspective. By studying the history of breastfeeding in the United States in the 20th century and interviewing women in various racial and socioeconomic groups, Blum offers a glimpse of the contradictions surrounding a physiological function. Nursing a baby gives a mother a chance to bond with her child, but it also relinquishes some of her control over her body, interferes with equality in the workplace, and transmits diseases such as HIV to infants. While white middle-class women feel that breastfeeding is part of motherhood, women of color see it as a reminder of slavery and an obstacle to independence. This book treats a fascinating subject, but the jargon-filled text makes it more suitable for academic libraries and women's studies collections. Scholars will appreciate the extensive bibliography. Public libraries are better served by more practical books such as Pamela Wiggins's Breastfeeding: A Mother's Gift (LJ 10/1/98).--Barbara M. Bibel, Oakland P.L., CA

Library Journal

Relying on a descriptive, sociological approach, the author surveys attitudes toward breastfeeding across time periods (from the 18th to the end of the 20th centuries) and social groups, focusing in turn on white middle-class, white working-class, and black mothers. Although her analysis of biological phenomena as shaped by race, gender, and class superficially resembles various trendy works of contemporary academic discourse, Blum (Sociology and Women's Studies/Univ. of New Hampshire; Between Feminism and Labor, 19TK) eschews a militant ideological agenda and is reluctant to moralize or advocate any pattern of prescribed behavior. Using ample evidence gleaned from her field research interviewing women within each of the target groups, as well as authoritative sources (medical practitioners, psychiatrists, and psychologists), she discovers that in the contemporary world such an ancient and seemingly natural procedure as breastfeeding is embedded in a plethora of historical, political, racial, and economic contexts. For instance, prior to this century, wealthy white women were encouraged to employ wet nurses, usually women of color; this legacy that accounts to a large extent for the fact that nowadays black mothers often reject breastfeeding even though the modern medical establishment exhorts women to breastfeed. White middle-class women, on the other hand, opt for breastfeeding, which they equate with "moral motherhood." As for working white mothers, they breastfeed less—due to such factors as lack of privacy, the need to earn a living, and health concerns—but are frequently anguished by these impediments to the fulfillment of their "maternal duty." While most previousstudies of this sort considered primarily the benefits to the infant of maternal milk, Blum emphasizes the mother's side. She concludes that breastfeeding is a complex issue, which can potentially lead either to self-realization or to self-sacrifice and stress. For the modern feminist, Blum concludes, the choice between the bottle or the breast should proceed from a careful assessment of the woman's own needs and desires.

Kirkus Reviews