Feminism, Breasts and Breast-Feeding [Paperback]

This book uses a feminist approach to examine the vast amount of material on breast-feeding. Baby milk manufacture is usually seen as the sole cause of the decline in breast-feeding. Using interviews with women the author looks at other dimensions: the sexualization of breasts; the conditions under which infant feeding takes place and professional interventions into mothering. Policy documents and popular breast-feeding books are shown to be preoccupied with getting women to do what they deem natural rather than with women's real needs.Acknowledgements - The Great Breast-Feeding Question - A Tidal Wave of Good Advice - Infant Feeding in Women's Lives - Public Space and Private Bodies - Breast-feeding, Sex and Bodies - 'She said the baby belonged to the state': Health Professionals and Mothering - Control and Resistance in Infant Feeding Regimes - Feminism and Infant Feeding: Theory and Policy - Bibliography - IndexPAM CARTER is Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Women's Studies at the University of Northumbria. She has published in the fields of social work and education and is currently engaged in research on sexuality in higher education.