A friend of mine sent me the following informations about books that just
came in at her library. The first sounds remarkably similar to our friend
who wrote the Salon article:

At the Breast : Ideologies of Breastfeeding and Motherhood in the
Contemporary United States
by Linda M. Blum
Amazon.com Synopsis
Presents a fascinating look at how women in different economic and ethnic
groups respond to the 1990s version of idealized motherhood, particularly
breastfeeding. 12 illustrations.

My friend wrote:
> Here, I'll just type up what the inside cover says:
>
> "Discouraged by the medical community for most of the century,
> breastfeeding regained esteem in the 1980s with the widespread advice
> that "breast is best." In fact, as Linda Blum demonstrated, popular media
> and experts so strongly emphasize the health benefits of breast milk for
> infants that breastfeeding is now considered the "bond" that cements the
> mother/child relationship.  For contemporary working mothers, then, "good
> mothering" has come to require the awkward intervention of breast pumping
> (and a lot of it).

> As she explores the history and reasons for this shift, Blum reveals that
> a discussion about the seemingly private and individual practice of
> breastfeeding is really a larger conversation about sexuality, class,
> race, and the control and construction of maternal bodies.  Interviewing
> three distinct groups of women, she discovers that the desirsbility and
> possibility of breastfeeding varies greatly.  The white middle-class
> married mothers of La Leche League that Blum talks to find breastfeeding
> to be a deeply gratifying experience of embodiment despite our society's
> rigid disciplining of female bodies and their appetites.  But the white
> working-class mothers she interviewed often find breastfeeding an
> anxiety-provoking reminder of uncertain respectability and dinimished
> expectations.  And her interviews of Black working-class mothers she finds
> that breastfeeding is frequently considered and undesirable practice that
> carries reminders of the painful history of relations between Black and
> whites in the U.S.

> For women seeking greater understanding of their experiences, for readers
> interested in the history of th ebody, and for anyone interested in how
> society constructs and constrains women's choices, At the Breast offers
> and innovative view of our society for a unique angle."

> Linda M. Blum is author of Between Feminism and Labor : The Significance
> of the Comparable Woth Movement.  She teaches sociology and women's
> studoes at the University of New Hampshire.
She added:
We also received a copy of "Failure to Thrive sand Pediatric undernutrition"
by Daniel Kessler and Peter Dawson forward by T. Berry Brazelton.  Has the
age-old advice not to  _let_ your clients nurse their kids at night.
Minimal discussion of breastfeeding.

Janice Berry, mom of Zack (11/30/92) and Gina (9/4/96)
Westerville, OH
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