Send your breastfeeding photos to me at info (at) mommytoo (dot) com.
Class and Bottlefeeding
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Since I've been talking a lot about bottlefeeding this week I thought I'd feature a few photos of bottlefeeding in 1930s. This is a meeting of the Mothers' Club in Arvin camp for migrant workers, a Farm Security Administration (FSA) camp. The discussion this evening centers on the possibility of buying kerosene oil in large quantities and distributing it cooperatively in camp, to cut costs. Kerosene is used both for cooking and for lighting purposes.
Just judging by how poor the mother with the baby is, she probably had no other choice but to bottlefeed since more than likely she worked.
Then again, this mother looks at least middle class and she's a bottlefeeder, too. Go figure.
Labels: bottlefeeding, breastfeeding history
posted by Jennifer James @ 9:00 AM,
4 Comments:
-
At December 22, 2007 1:18 PM,
Lone Star Ma said...
-
I know lots of farm workers breastfed, and I have read stories about working nursing moms earlier, at the turn of the century, so I am not sure poverty was always linked to bottle-feeding. I think it was originally the upper and middle classes that turned to it and then the poor took it up to emulate them. Now more well-off women nurse but it is still out of fashion with the poor...although many poor Hispanic mothers in South Texas both nurse and bottle-feed, and seem to have less trouble combining the two than do middle and upper class women. I don't know. The class issues are so difficult to unravel.
-
At December 22, 2007 11:55 PM,
momnzion said...
-
May??be?? one or both of those women just had a hard time when it came to nursing?? When my son was in the NICU I felt really bad for those mothers that were not able to pump much milk out, or give their babies enough milk directly from the breast, when I was pumping 40+ ounces a day before even putting my son to my breast! They were really trying hard to make it work. Some women really want to nurse but for some reason their milk just wont cooperate...
-
At December 23, 2007 12:09 PM,
Eilat said...
-
In response to momnzion, I would point out that these photos took place in 1930's. At that time, there was no NICU (at least the way it exists today) and most preemies with any kind of health problem just didn't make it.
There was a time, not long before the 30's, where having a hard time breastfeeding was not enough cause to not breastfeed. You see, formula at one time didn't exist as an option. If you gave up breastfeeding, your baby didn't eat.
Because these constraints naturally existed, everyone was breastfed. It is true that wealthy people (esp. during slavery, as is well documented in this blog) might have used wet nurses, but by and large young women saw their mothers, aunts, sisters, cousins, etc. nursing their babies, and did the same when it was their turn.
Most difficulties in breastfeeding arise from lack of knowledge and support, not a physiological problem.
This is especially true for the photos in this post. The switch to formula in our culture did not occur because there were lots of women with a "hard time" who were waiting for some invention to come along and relieve them.
The historical evidence argues for just what lone star ma described. Formula was marketed to the wealthy as the "clean, sophisticated" choice. Breatfeeding was depicted as dirty and base, for poor people who couldn't afford formula.
"and then the poor took it up to emulate them" -- exactly. -
At December 24, 2007 10:57 AM,
Pixie LaRouge said...
-
"Breatfeeding was depicted as dirty and base, for poor people who couldn't afford formula."
Eilat, this is such a true statement! What makes me sad is that some people still cling to this. Afterall, breastfeeding doesn't make anyone any money, so it just CAN'T be appropriate for anyone in rich America! ugh.
