Bernice is really asking about how professionals view Ruth Lawrence's book, but I am posting her entire email to the list so you can respond to her. This is being done with her knowledge. Please respond also to the list, or to me privately at mailto:[log in to unmask], as I would be very interested to see how others view these issues. Kathy Dettwyler >From: Bernice Hausman <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: query >X-Sender: [log in to unmask] >To: [log in to unmask] > >Dear Katherine Dettwyler: > >I'm currently revising an article on Ruth Lawrence's Breastfeeding: A Guide for the Medical Profession (to be published in a technical communications journal on medical rhetoric). Someone has asked me--well, how do you know this is the most important (perhaps the only) guide written by a physician for physicians on breastfeeding? > >I don't have a medical library available to me in Blacksburg, and so I want to query Lactnet--what is the stature of Lawrence's book, among professionals? What makes it the definitive source? Is it, as I have been led to believe, the only book of its kind? > >Unfortunately, while I used to be on the Lactnet listserv, I signed off and subsequently lost my hard drive. Can you give me the subscription information again? > >By the way, I don't know if you have read Linda Blum's book yet, but I had an interesting conversation with a graduate class in history about the view of mothers presented in the book. A friend of mine is teaching a course on Feminist Issues in the History of Medicine, and asked me to join the class when they read Blum's book. The feeling of the students was that breastfeeding advocates use discourses that have historically been used to regulate women (mostly poor women) in terms of their mothering practices--so that any discourse that talks about the health of the child or the idea of IQ is necessarily imposing problematic ideological views on mothering. Interestingly, when I challenged this with the idea that there is compelling medical information about the health detriments of formula feeding, the students discounted this argument, stating that the medical data was problematic because it replicated ideologically suspect views of women as mothers. How do you deal with this issue (also one that Blum stresses), that breastfeeding advocacy seems to replicate white middle class norms of mothering, which have historically been used against other women and their childrearing practices? Is there a way to separate the ideologically problematic views of mothering as women's "natural" state with the medical information in support of breastfeeding? Is there any way to talk about children's needs or rights without erasing the subjectivity of mothers and their choices? > >Not an easy list of questions. I find it difficult, in my research, to float between the contexts of breastfeeding advocacy and its skeptics. It's as if I agree with all sides, or can see legitimate points of view in each perspective (although I can't agree, entirely, with anyone). An agonistic view, to say the least. In any event, thanks for any help in advance. And thanks for the materials you've sent me--I'm anticipating more work on evolutionary views when I can get back to the book. This fall I've been putting together materials for tenure. > >yours, > >Bernice Hausman > *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html