History Fix
In each episode of History Fix, I discuss lesser known stories from history that you won't be able to stop thinking about. Need your history fix? You've come to the right place.
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History Fix
Ep. 113 Infant Feeding: How Breastfeeding Has Been a Challenge and a Controversy Throughout Time
This episode is all about the history of feeding babies which has been necessary and yet surprisingly difficult since the beginning of mankind. In fact, it's so necessary that to forgo it, up until very recently, the last hundred years or so, was a death sentence for the infant. We don’t often think about feeding babies. It’s something mothers take care of behind the scenes, part of the invisible load. We certainly don’t pause to think about the history of it, the immense challenges faced throughout the ages. But we should. As necessary as infant feeding is, as necessary as it has always been, society still does not make it easy for mothers to pull off. And that should concern you, even if you aren’t a mother, even if you aren’t a baby. Because you were once, and so was I, and so was literally everyone. Let’s fix that.
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Sources:
- The Journal of Perinatal Education "A History of Infant Feeding" by Stevens, Patrick, and Pickler
- CDC "Trends in Breastfeeding Among American Mothers"
- US Department of Labor "FLSA Protections to Pump at Work"
- Mamava "The History of Breastfeeding"
- GinPolMed Project "A history of breastfeeding"
- Time Magazine "Desperate Women, Desperate Doctors and the Surprising History Behind the Breastfeeding Debate"
- NC Health News "Distant echoes of slavery affect breastfeeding attitudes of Black women"