Why Breastfeeding?: Natural Motherhood in Post-War America

Abstract

This article explores the history of breastfeeding in postwar America and places it within a larger framework of the intersections of science, culture, and gender. Through an exploration of the history of breastfeeding at its nadir, it argues that the movement back to the breast that became visible in the 1970s was rooted in the emergence of the ideology of natural motherhood in the decades surrounding World War II. Natural motherhood relied upon a scientific understanding of nature and motherhood in which interconnected physiological and emotional processes unfolded instinctually in the bodies of mothers and infants along a largely predetermined pattern. Through an analysis of scientific and prescriptive literature on family, child rearing, and sexuality, and the letters of women themselves, this article seeks to understand the persistent choices of mothers to breastfeed in this period and asks what meaning the practice held.

Examining the use of ‘natural’ in breastfeeding promotion: ethical and practical concerns

“…Women face pressure to create safe environments for their children outside the womb as well, through infancy and childhood, despite the many hurdles to doing so 4 6. A great deal of responsibility to reduce risks to children is located with parents, and in particular mothers,32 35 and mothers’ choices are often framed as self-contained choices, while the broader social, cultural and economic influences that constrain and shape those choices recede from view 36…”

Beyond the Nature/Medicine Divide in Maternity Care

“…21 A small but growing breastfeeding movement helped nurture a belief among some that women's bodies had a natural flow, rhythm, and connectivity to them that united mothers across time and place. 22 This perspective gained its most successful advocate in the work of birth reformer Ina May Gaskin. With its roots in observations of indigenous cultures obscured, Gaskin's vision of natural childbirth that emerged in the 1970s was imbued with the era's sense of cosmic mysticism and self-discovery.…”

The Life and Legacy of Niles Polk Rumely Newton: Breastfeeding Researcher, Advocate, and Mother, 1923-1993

“…This neglect, however, is unfortunate and costly to anyone seeking to fully understand the cultural and scientific practices that have come to surround pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding in America today. Through her unique and interdisciplinary approach to the study of maternal processes, particularly childbirth and breastfeeding, Newton articulated some of the most nuanced and pro-mother arguments of the relationships between gender, culture, and biology published prior to the emergence of second-wave feminism (Martucci, 2015a(Martucci, , 2015b. Her work contributed to a scientific and philosophical scaffolding on which the modern breastfeeding and birth reform movements took shape.…”

“…Newton has long occupied a special place within breastfeeding and midwifery circles, but knowledge of her influence has remained confined to these communities (Lawrence, 1994; Odent, 1987; Roberts, 1994). In only a handful of places have academic scholars in the history and sociology of science, medicine, and childbirth given Newton’s work serious attention (Dundes, 2003; Edwards & Waldor, 1984; Martucci, 2015a, 2015b).…”