ABOUT THIS BOOK

How did breastfeeding—once accepted as the essence of motherhood and essential to the well-being of infants—come to be viewed with distaste and mistrust? Why did mothers come to choose artificial food over human milk, despite the health risks? In this history of infant feeding, Jacqueline H. Wolf focuses on turn-of-the-century Chicago as a microcosm of the urbanizing United States. She explores how economic pressures, class conflict, and changing views of medicine, marriage, efficiency, self-control, and nature prompted increasing numbers of women and, eventually, doctors to doubt the efficacy and propriety of breastfeeding. Examining the interactions among women, dairies, and health care providers, Wolf uncovers the origins of contemporary attitudes toward and myths about breastfeeding.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Jacqueline H. Wolf is a professor emeritus of the history of medicine, Department of Social Medicine, Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine.

REVIEWS

“This book is an excellent addition to the literature on ‘mothers and medicine.’ There are a lot of important issues addressed here, especially regarding the role of women in shifting medical policy and the complex interplay between mothers, physicians and milk manufacturers. Wolf’s notion that women set the stage for the move from breast to bottle, with doctors and manufacturers then moving in, is especially provocative.” —Julia Grant, Michigan State University

“Wolf's book on the unfortunate transition from breast to bottle is essential reading for everyone concerned with life in modern America. She writes an exciting and very personal human story of the mothers, doctors, public health leaders, and politicians who were responsible for and involved with this critical change in child care. More than any other book in this field, Wolf's new information and insights help us all to understand our current situation with regard to infant feeding and child rearing in general. Despite my many years working in the field of infant nutrition and breastfeeding, I learned a great deal that was new, exciting, and important from reading this very readable book. This is not dry history.” —Lawrence M. Gartner, M.D., professor emeritus, Departments of Pediatrics and Obstetrics/Gynecology, the University of Chicago; and past president of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine.

TABLE OF CONTENTS






Acknowledgments                                                  ix
Chronology of Events in Infant Feeding History                  xiii
Introduction                                                      1
1         "It Takes Quite a Little Courage to Stand Out":
Mothers Move from Breast to Bottle                      9
2         "Slaughter of the Innocents": Infant Mortality
and the Urban Milk Supply                              42
3         "They Cannot Transform Cows' Milk into Woman's Milk":
Physicians and Infant Feeding                          74
4         "Insist upon Breast Feeding": Public Health Organizations
and Infant Feeding                                    102
5         "Mercenary Hirelings" or "A Great Blessing"?: Wet Nurses
as Private and Institutional Employees                132
6         "Give It the Nearest Thing to Mother's Milk":
Human Milk Substitutes                                158
Epilogue  "A Matter of Nursing Routine": Infant Feeding
since the 1930s                                       187
Appendix A   Deaths from Diarrhea Under Two Years of Age in Chicago  205 
Appendix B   Percentage of Deaths Under Age One in Chicago by Cause,
1897 to 1939                                      208
Appendix C   What Chicago Mothers Fed Their Newborns, 1911-1933  212 
Notes                                                           215
Works Cited                                                     251
Index                                                           281