Giving Breastmilk

Body Ethics and Contemporary Breastfeeding Practice

Edited by Alison Bartlett, Rhonda Shaw

“This is an excellent book that is coherent and theoretically strong. The authorship is diverse yet highly appropriate. The book follows a logical sequence and represents an advance in the social science of breastfeeding. It is likely to be of interest to academics in the fields of anthropology, sociology and women’s studies. It will also appeal to breastfeeding specialists, midwives and other health professionals working with breastfeeding women.”
—Fiona Dykes, Professor of Maternal and Infant Health, Director of Maternal and Infant Nutrition and Nurture Unit (MAINN), University of Central Lancashire, England

“Giving Breastmilk is a welcome addition to contemporary scholarship on mothering. It offers an innovative approach—instead of polemical or ‘how to’ books, here is a collection of thoughtful and interesting discussions that take the production of breastmilk and the process of breastfeeding seriously as complex and invaluable social practices. The book will make a major interdisciplinary contribution to understanding women’s mothering experience and practice, to public health discourse and to general knowledge of breastmilk and feeding.
—Kerreen Reiger, Associate Professor of Sociology, La Trobe University, Australia, and author of Our Bodies Our Babies: the Forgotten Women’s Movement Journals

Contents

Introduction: Mapping the Ethics and Politics of Contemporary Breastmilk Exchange: An Introduction–Alison Bartlett and Rhonda Shaw
Part I: Making Milk
The Breast Pump–Cindy Stearns
The Ideological Work of Infant Feeding–Denise A. Copelton, Rebecca McGee, Andrew Coco, Isis Shanbaky, Timothy Riley
“Breast is Best” and Other Messages of Breastfeeding Promotion–Annette Beasley
The Lactating Body and Conflicting Ideals of Sexuality, Motherhood and Self–Monica Campo
Receiving and Enjoying Milk: What Breastfeeding Means to Children–Karleen Gribble
Part II: Sharing Milk
Perspectives on Ethics and Human Milk Banking–Rhonda Shaw The Story of the Mothers’ Milk Bank of New England (MMBNE)–Naomi Bromberg Bar-Yam
Comparing Sharing and Banking Milk: Issues of Gift Exchange and Community in the Sudan and Ireland–Tanya M. Cassidy and Abdullahi El-Tom
Going with the Flow: Contemporary Discourses of Donor Breastmilk Use and Breastmilk in a Neonatal Intensive Care Setting– Carol Bartle
Wet-nursing, Milk Banks, and Black Markets: The Political Economy of Giving Breastmilk in Canada in the 20th and 21st century–Tasnim Nathoo and Aleck Ostry
Part III: Milk Politics
Breastfeeding And HIV/AIDS: Critical Gaps And Dangerous Intersections–Penny Van Esterik
From Maternal Love to Toxic Exposure: State Interpretations of Breastfeeding Mothers in the Child Welfare System–Jennifer A. Reich
Risk and Culture Revisited: Breastfeeding and the 2002 West Nile Virus Scare in the United States–Bernice L. Hausman
Part IV: Milk Theory
Giving Breastmilk as Being-with–Karen McBride-Henry and Rhonda Shaw
Breastfeeding Envy: Unresolved Patriarchal Envy and the Obstruction of Physiologically-Based Nursing Patterns–Keren Epstein-Gilboa
Breastfeeding and Time: In Search of a Language for Pleasure and Agency–Alison Bartlett
From “Gift of Loss” to Self Care: The Significance of Induced Lactation in Takashi Miike’s Visitor Q–Fiona Giles

About the Authors

Alison Bartlett teaches Women’s Studies at the University of Western Australia. Her previous books include Breastwork: Rethinking Breastfeeding (2005) and Jamming the Machinery: Contemporary Australian Women’s Writing (1998). Her research on cultural meanings of maternity, embodiment and breasted knowledge has been widely published.

Rhonda Shaw teaches in the School of Social & Cultural Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Since 2002 she has been researching body gifting practices including shared breastfeeding, ovarian egg donation, surrogate pregnancy arrangements, and organ donation and transplantation processes. Rhonda’s work has been published widely in international journals.