Nos corps, notre nature

Our Bodies, Our Nature: Breastfeeding and Maternal Ideology in mid-20th Century America

Jessica Martucci, Ph.D., Mississippi State University

Thursday, January 17, 2013
Light refreshments at 5:30; Lecture at 6:00 p.m.
The New York Academy of Medicine
1216 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10029

In 1972, the international breastfeeding support organization, La Leche League, published a pamphlet titled "DDT and Mother's Milk," which addressed the problem of tainted breat milk. "Many mothers have wondered whether they should discontinue nursing their babies," they wrote, adding "The answer is 'No.'" As much as the League wished the issue of DDT and other toxins in milk would just go away, environmental
contaminants have been a persistent issue in scientific and popular discussions of breastfeeding. As early as 1951, scientists began recording traces of DDT stored in the fat of humans, while early animal studies suggested that dangerous chemicals might be concentrated in mother's milk. Through the 1960s, research highlighting the concentrations of DDT in human bodies continued to appear in leading medical journals. In this talk, Professor Martucci explores how the overt discussion about environmental contamination, toxic bodies and breastfeeding was just one part of a much deeper ideological debate over the "nature" of motherhood and infant feeding. Drawing upon the papers of La Leche League, interviews and records of early environmental activism in groups such as the Society for a SANE Nuclear Policy and Women Strike for Peace, this talk explores the links between the resurgence of breastfeeding in America and the emergence of an environmental consciousness.

Jessica Martucci is an Assistant Professor in the History Department and Gender Studies Program and is associate member of the Center for the History of Agriculture, Science, and the Environment of the South at
Mississippi State University. She received her B.A. in Biology and Environmental Studies at Oberlin College, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in the History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania. She is currently finishing her first book project, Back to the Breast: Natural Motherhood and Breastfeeding in the 20th Century.

To register for this event http://support.nyam.org/site/Calendar?id=103121&view=Detail


The New York Academy of Medicine
1216 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10029
Tel: 212-822-7313
Email: ashaner@nyam.org
www.nyam.org