The Politics of Breastfeeding (Issues in women's health) - Softcover

Gabrielle Palmer

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9780863582202: The Politics of Breastfeeding (Issues in women's health)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0863582206 ISBN 13: 9780863582202

Publisher: Rivers Oram Press/Pandora List, 1988

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As propaganda about the benefits of breastfeeding increases, the number of breastfed babies worldwide decreases. This book asks why more babies are given artificial milk, and examines the political reasons for the situation and the link between the decline in breastfeeding and child malnutrition.

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Synopsis:

"Pandora Issues in Women's Health" is a series of investigative books written by women about all aspects of our bodies and health. Each book takes into account women's lives in different countries and cultures and challenges conventional assumptions about health issues which affect us all. In this book, the author draws on the experience of over 120 women to explore the feelings resulting from an amniocentesis test. This test, which detects Down's Syndrome, is becoming a routine part of prenatal care for women over 30 and can radically alter the way we think about childbirth and becoming a parent. The results of amniocentesis, and the more recently developed chorion villus sampling, force us to confront agonizing dilemmas of what to do if there is a problem with the foetus. The author considers ways of coming to terms with the termination of a wanted pregnancy and at the kind of support which can be expected if the parents make the decision to raise a handicapped child. As propaganda about the benefits of breastfeeding increases, so do the worldwide sales of artificial milks and feeding bottles, and the number of breastfed babies decreases.

This book asks why more babies are given artificial milk when breastmilk is a nutritionally balanced food and a wonder drug that both prevents and treats disease. The author examines the political reasons for this situation and social attitudes to women. She reveals the myths and superstitions of modern medicine, and considers the vulnerability of doctors to commercial pressures and misinformation, and the link between the decline in breastfeeding, the population explosion and child malnutrition. Gabrielle Palmer has worked as a breastfeeding counsellor of the National Childbirth Trust, as an organizer for Save the Children Fund and as a nutritionist in Mozambique.

About the Author:

Gabrielle Palmer is a nutritionist and a campaigner. She was a breastfeeding counsellor in the 1970s and helped establish the UK pressure group Baby Milk Action. In the early 1980s she lived and worked as a volunteer in Mozambique. She has written, taught and campaigned on infant feeding issues, particularly the unethical marketing of baby foods.
In the 1990s she co-directed the International Breastfeeding: Practice and Policy course at The Institute of Child Health in London until she went to live in China for two years. She has worked independently for various health and development agencies, including serving as HIV and Infant Feeding Officer for UNICEF New York. She recently worked at The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where she had originally studied nutrition. She is a mother and a grandmother.

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