Mother's Milk

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.

Bernice L. Hausman is Professor of English at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where she also teaches for the Women's Studies Program. She is the author of Changing Sex: Transsexualism, Technology, and the Idea of Gender and writes about medicine, gender theory, and the body. She lives in Blacksburg, VA.

Preface Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Dead Babies 2. Rational Management 3. Breast Is Best 4. Stone Age Mothering 5. Womanly Arts 6. Breastfeeding, Feminism, Activism Epilogue: Lactation and Sexual Difference Notes Works Cited Index