Milk, Money and Madness: Culture and Politics of Breastfeeding: The Culture and Politics of Breastfeeding - Hardcover

Baumslag, Naomi; Michels, Dia L.

4.3

196 ratings by Goodreads

9780897894074: Milk, Money and Madness: Culture and Politics of Breastfeeding: The Culture and Politics of Breastfeeding

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0897894073 ISBN 13: 9780897894074

Publisher: Praeger Publishers Inc, 1995

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I commend the authors of Milk, Money, and Madness for the considerable contribution they have made by voicing their opinions, contributing their knowledge, stimulating debate and challenging conventional wisdom. Dr. Richard Jolly, Acting Executive Director UNICEF Breastfeeding is a beautiful process. It involves the participation of both mother and child and cannot be duplicated by a glass bottle and rubber nipple. So why does the United States have the lowest breastfeeding rate in the industrialized world? In Milk, Money and Madness, Baumslag and Michels examine the issue of breastfeeding, clearly drawing a line between fact and fiction. Among the main points addressed are: o How U.S. taxpayers unwittingly support and encourage bottle-feeding by spending over $500 million each year to provide 37% of the infants in the U.S. with free formula. o How a product created to help sick children and foundlings was transformed into a powerful international industry with revenues of $22 million a day. o How an intimate and self-affirming life experience that is responsible for the survival of our species has been reduced to just one feeding option. Milk, Money, and Madness provides parents and health professionals with the information they need to fully appreciate and advise about this critical life choice. By reviewing the history, culture, biology, and politics of breastfeeding, Milk, Money, and Madness gives the reader a more complete understanding of the uniqueness of breastfeeding. The crucial decision between breastfeeding and formula feeding is increasingly complicated by misinformation and unfounded theories which cloud the actual facts. By all accounts, breastmilk is the most amazing life-sustaining fluid known to humanity. Many women who breastfeed characterize it as perhaps the most fulfilling life experience they will ever know. Scientific research supports the fact that breastfed babies are healthier, have lower infant mortality rates and fewer chronic illnesses throughout their lives than formula-fed babies. Similarly, women who breastfeed are significantly less likely to contract serious illnesses such as breast cancer. Alarmingly few people are aware of the unique benefits of breastfeeding and do not understand the dangers and risks of feeding an infant formula. In fact, the United States has the lowest breastfeeding rate in the industrialized world. Why has our society defied common sense and scientific data when breastfeeding has so many biological, emotional, environmental, and even financial advantages over laboratory blends? Milk, Money, and Madness is a thought-provoking book that offers honest answers and straight facts about breastfeeding. This book is designed to provide women, men, health workers, doctors, nurses, and midwives with the knowledge they need to advise or decide about the most suitable means of nourishment for infants. Baumslag and Michels consider the effects of 50 years of clever marketing and advertising which have transformed this society into one where bottle feeding is the norm and infant formula is considered to be essential to women's liberation and the forming of a paternal-infant bond. They also examine attitudes toward breastfeeding in cultures all around the world as compared to the antipathy toward breastfeeding that pervades the United States. Milk, Money, and Madness cuts through the myths and paranoia to offer an enlightening, culturally significant look at one of the most fundamentally beautiful functions of the human experience.

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Review:

"The authors have provided an easy-to-read, up-to-date source for understanding breastfeeding from a wide variety of perspectives--historical, medical, economic, and political. More significantly, they make this information accessible by addressing commonly-asked questions: Is the milk good enough? Isn't formula just a Third World issue? Is mother's milk always safe? How should formula be sold?"-Penny Van Esterik Associate Professor of Anthropology, York University, Toronto

From the Author:

Provides an understanding why breastfeeding is an issue.
It is an irony that this book needed to be written. It wasn't that long ago that breastfeeding was as much a part of the maternal experience as pregnancy. Now, many American mothers think twice about it ... and decide not to bother. There are many wonderful books instructing women "how" to brestfeed, but information on "why" to is scarce. This books provides the big picture about breastfeeding, explaining its history, culture, biology and politics. It is an important book to help women understand the miracle substance they are capable of producing and to respect the magnificence of their bodies.

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