Mother's Milk

"Mother's Milk" examines how and why nursing a baby - the breast or bottle debate - has become such a complex experience in contemporary culture. By looking at medical, popular and scholarly materials, Bernice Hausman demonstrates how much is at stake in this ongoing debate.

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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.