A Social History of Wet Nursing in America: From Breast to Bottle (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780521495448)

A Social History of Wet Nursing in America: From Breast to Bottle examines the intersection of medical science, social theory, and cultural practices as they shaped relations among wet nurses, physicians, and families from the colonial period through the twentieth century. It explores how Americans used wet nursing to solve infant feeding problems, shows why wet nursing became controversial as motherhood slowly became medicalized, and elaborates how the development of scientific infant feeding eliminated wet nursing by the beginning of the twentieth century. Janet Golden's study contributes to our understanding of the cultural authority of medical science, the role of physicians in shaping child rearing practices, the social construction of motherhood, and the profound dilemmas of class and culture that played out in the private space of the nursery.

Author: Janet Golden
ISBN-10: 052149544X
ISBN-13: 9780521495448
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 02/23/1996
Pages: 234
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.06lbs
Size: 9.18h x 6.20w x 0.68d