Don’t Kill Your Baby: Public Health and the Decline of Breast-feeding in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Role of Breast Milk and Breastfeeding within the Context of a Sustainable, Resilient Food System

“…9 Exceptions to this model existed in higher socioeconomic status groups, where upper class women tended to have their children attended by wet nurses, although this was more common in Europe than in North America. 10 Upper class women in North America had a harder time securing this service because wet nurses were scarcer. 10 In many colonized areas, including the United States, female slaves were forced to nurse both their children and the children of their owners simultaneously, or were separated from their children to become a wet nurse for their owner's children.…”

“…10 Upper class women in North America had a harder time securing this service because wet nurses were scarcer. 10 In many colonized areas, including the United States, female slaves were forced to nurse both their children and the children of their owners simultaneously, or were separated from their children to become a wet nurse for their owner's children. 11 These practices often resulted in malnutrition and death of the woman's biological children.…”

“…13 Public health workers encouraged the practice of pasteurization and chemists began the development of milk formula. 10,13 Substitution of breast milk with Artificial Baby Milk (ABM) continued as women increasingly left the home to move into cities and work in factories, leaving the mother-child dyad separated. By 1873, Henri Nestlé was selling 500,000 boxes of "farine lactée" per year.…”

‘Milk Pride’: Lactivist Online Constructions of Positive Breastfeeding Value

“…Increasingly, it seems, women choose online support groups as their main source of information on child-rearing practices (Fredriksen et al, 2016). This trend is linked to a loss of support systems and a loss of collective knowledge and experience of breastfeeding within women's primary contact groups, as part of a wider loss of traditional networks of support for mothering (Kitzinger 1992;Oakley 1992;Carter 1995;Wolf 2001;Hill Collins 2000). When women discuss mothering generally and breastfeeding specifically in online environments, the lack of support they experience in their immediate contexts becomes visible (Drentea and Moren-Cross 2005;Radkowska Walkowicz 2009).…”

Considering Inequities in Breastfeeding

“…A notable exception is the work of Jacqueline Wolf, who is a member of our Editorial Review Board. Dr. Wolf (2001Wolf ( , 2003 has published in-depth explorations of the intersections between history, public health, and infant feeding. Understanding the historical context, issues, and influences helps us to contextualize our responses to issues occurring today.…”