A History of Breastfeeding

I just finished a fascinating history of breastfeeding and its alternatives and the best part is that the article is free online. Author Paul Doolan starts with the ancient Egyptians and continues through Western civilization right up to the present day. The article's focus can be summed up in a quote he used at the start: "As Valerie Fildes, the medical historian, puts it: ‘Either an infant was breastfed by its mother, or some other mother, or it died.’" The main focus is on the place of wet nurses and how they became more (or less) fashionable depending on what was going on politically at the time. Later on he gets into artificial feeding methods and their impact on modern breastfeeding. I just wish he had written a little about how we now have human milk banks and their impact (if any) for babies. Instead he focuses on modern legislation and groups seeking to promote breastfeeding and help nursing mothers, which is still a great way to end the article. Check it out here:

"Nursing Times"

by Paul Doolan

http://www.historytoday.com/MainArticle.aspx?m=33033&amid=30259576