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Journal of Human Lactation

DOI: 10.1177/089033440001600317 2000; 16; 248 J Hum Lact

Virginia Thorley Book Review: Inventing Maternity: Politics, Science, and Literature (1650-1865)

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vides insight, guid ance, and sup port for the woman whois think ing about or has cho sen to breast feed her infantinto toddlerhood. Ori ginally pub lished in 1980, the chil -dren Bumgarner wrote about now have chil dren of theirown. But the nur tur ing rela tion ship that results frompro longed nurs ing dis cussed here will no doubt con -tinue to cap ture the inter est of nurs ing moth ers.

The book looks beyond the how and why of nurs ingpast one year and advo cates a style of parenting wheremoth ers are avail able to their babies. The title itself clar -i fies that this book is about moth er ing tod dlers ratherthan breast feed ing them.

Bumgarner cites bio log i cal, cul tural, and his tor i calevi dence in sup port of breast feed ing older chil dren andthrough out shares sto ries of fam i lies with whom she has been involved. The chap ters include per ti nent top icssuch as preg nancy and tan dem nurs ing, nurs ing andweight gain, and cop ing with fam ily pres sures. There isalso a chap ter for each year, includ ing age four andbeyond.

Her tone in the sec tion on employ ment away fromhome is not sup port ive of the work ing mother, and shespends most of the time exam in ing alter na tives to work.A dis cus sion of the guilt and of the stress on the childpaves the way for the par tic u lars of deal ing with thissep a ra tion and main tain ing the nurs ing rela tion ship.

The last 40 pages are ded i cated to wean ing, which “is some thing you can for get about . . . in your own bestinter ests and your child’s” (p. 259). Unfor tu nately,because of a sig nif i cant gap in research in this domain,this sec tion is the least well ref er enced. Instead, she uses expe ri ences from some moth ers (some times dis count -ing those of oth ers) as well as her own for wean ingadvice. Some Time-Honored or (Time-Worn?)Approaches to Weaning (e.g., wean ing by aban don -ment, the spicy burrito method, the return of Fran ken -stein’s mon ster) will be received dif fer ently by read ersdepend ing on their state of recep tiv ity, but will leave noone with a neu tral opin ion.

Bumgarner has filled a gap in resources for moth ersof nurs ing tod dlers. Mothers who are mak ing the choiceto nurse beyond the first year will find answers to theirques tions and sup port for their deci sion.

Teri Shil ling, MS, IBCLCGunnison, Col o rado USA

In venting Ma ter nity: Pol i tics, Sci ence, and Lit er a -ture (1650-1865)Su san C. Green field and Carol Barash, ed i torsUni ver sity Press of Ken tucky, 1999274 pages–(US)$35–hard coverOr ders: Uni ver sity Press of Ken tucky, 663 South Lime -stone Street, Lexington, KY 40508-4008 USATel: (606) 257-8761

This schol arly vol ume argues that 20th-cen tury con -cepts of the full-time mother as the ideal were inventedin the 18th cen tury and traces its devel op ment dur ing the period from 1650 to 1865. Med i cal texts, polit i caltracts, reli gious writ ings, poetry, nov els, slave nar ra -tives, con duct books, and cook books are ana lyzed based on fem i nist, cul tural, and postcolonial the o ries. Thisanthol ogy exam ines cen tral debates on moth er hood,from fetal devel op ment to child rear ing, and traces theirdevel op ment.

Early in this period, the woman defined her preg -nancy because she alone could report the quick en ing, orfetal move ment, by which preg nancy was offi cially con -firmed. Only later would oth ers con trol preg nancy diag -no sis. Con tro versy existed about whether a woman’sthoughts and actions could dam age the fetus, a con tro -versy seen today in Amer ica in pros e cu tions of womenfor pre na tal sub stance abuse. Med i cal texts moved frompre sent ing women’s bod ies as infe rior ver sions of men’s to see ing them as “essen tially mater nal” (p. 5). Thus,Cadogan and other 18th-cen tury med i cal writ ers rep re -sented breast feed ing as the mother’s bio log i cal respon -si bil ity. Although the father had author ity over how thebaby was to be fed, Augus tan con duct books pro videdan alter na tive author ity on cor rect behav ior, glo ri fy ing“female domes tic author ity” (p. 12) and por tray ingmater nal breast feed ing as “the ulti mate indi ca tor ofmater nal vir tue” (p. 142). How ever, slave and lower-class moth ers lacked the free dom to be full-time moth -ers because they were forced to leave their babies towork in the fields.

Later chap ters exam ine pre oc cu pa tions with fer til ityand pop u la tion con trol in the late 18th to mid-19th cen -tu ries, includ ing infan ti cide, law, pov erty, and issues ofrace, colo nial ism, and nation al ism.

Although the basic prem ise of this book is not new, itpro vides fur ther insights into the ori gins of mod ern con -

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cepts of moth er hood, includ ing infant feed ing, throughthe fil ters of his tory, soci ol ogy, and fem i nism.

Vir ginia Thorley, OAM, IBCLCBris bane, Queensland, Aus tra lia

Breast feed ing and Com ple men tary In fant Feed ing,and the Postpartum Ef fects of Breast feed ing. DHSCom par a tive Studies No. 30.Pa tri cia A. Haggerty and Shea O. RutsteinMacro In ter na tional, 1999282 pages–graphs and tables–sin gle copy free ofcharge–soft cover.Or ders: Macro In ter na tional Inc., 11785 BeltsvilleDrive, Suite 300, Calverton, MD 20705 USATel: (301) 572-0200; Fax: (301) 572-0999URL: www.macroint.com/dhs/

This vol ume reports demo graphic and health sur veysand World Fer til ity Sur vey data from 37 national sur -veys rep re sent ing more than 250,000 chil dren. The pur -pose is to describe sim i lar i ties and dif fer ences betweencoun tries to high light the needs of sub groups and pol icydevel op ment. It cov ers breast feed ing, com ple men taryinfant feed ing, and the postpartum effects of breast feed -ing, most nota bly lac ta tion amenorrhea.

This book is a gold mine of data on breast feed ingrates and dura tion, com ple men tary feed ing prac tices,and lac ta tion amenorrhea for indi vid ual coun tries. Thesec tions are pri mar ily data pre sented in tables and fig -ures with brief nar ra tives to help the reader nav i gate anddigest the vol umes of infor ma tion. Dif fer ences amongthe regions are described (Sub-Saha ran Africa, Asia,Near East/North Africa, and Latin Amer ica/Carib bean).

It is encour ag ing to note the over all trend of increas -ing num bers of infants being breast feed in these devel -op ing coun tries. For exam ple, breast feed ing rates ofinfants 12 to 15 months and 20 to 23 months increased9% and 7%, respec tively, between 1990 and 1996. How -ever, sev eral depar tures from pol icy are iden ti fied. In anum ber of cul tures, infants are not put to breast untilafter 2 days of life. Another area caus ing con cern is thelarge num ber of chil dren who receive com ple men taryfoods too early or too late. Infants receive com ple men -tary foods as early as 1 to 3 months in 13 coun tries, andthe num ber of infants receiv ing com ple men tary foodsby 6 months ranges from 12% in Brazil to 93% in theCen tral Afri can Repub lic and Zim ba bwe.

In gen eral, the period of lac ta tion amenorrheaincreases with mater nal age, edu ca tion, and birth order.Lac ta tion amenorrhea is four months lon ger in ruralareas than in urban areas. An over all decrease in medianlac ta tion amenorrhea of 0.5 months (decadal rate) hasbeen observed in devel op ing coun tries. That thisdecrease has occurred despite increases in breast feed -ing dura tion may rep re sent changes in breast feed inginten sity. Sur pris ingly, the rela tion ship between fre -quency of nurs ing and amenorrhea is not the sameacross coun tries. This vari abil ity is sur pris ing for whatwas thought to be a biodemographic rela tion ship.

This ref er ence seems most suit able for inter na tionalresearch ers and pol icy mak ers.

Maureen A. Murtaugh, PhD, RDMinneapolis, Min ne sota USA

The Mask of Moth er hood: How Be com ing a MotherChanges Ev ery thing and Why We Pre tend It Does n’tSu san Maushart304 pages–(US)$24–hard coverOr ders: The New Press, 450 West 41st Street, NewYork, NY 10036 USATel: 1-800-233-4830 (toll-free) or (212) 629-8081; Fax: (212) 629-8617URL: www.thenewpress.com

Maushart, whose doc tor ate is in com mu ni ca tion artsand sci ences, pos its that the postfeminist cul turetrivializes the impact of moth er hood on a woman’s life.This “mask of moth er hood” hides the facts that moth er -ing is both more sig nif i cant and more dif fi cult thanwomen are led to believe. This dif fer ence betweenexpec ta tion and real ity leads to a per va sive feel ing ofinad e quacy and anx i ety among today’s moth ers. Thebook traces these ideas through their ori gins in patri ar -chy and fem i nist thought and exam ines women’s com -plic ity in main tain ing the mask and the social struc turesthat cause them to bear the major ity of the fam ily’s psy -cho log i cal bur den and unpaid labor.

The chap ters on preg nancy and birth read like astand-up (com edy) rou tine whose hyper bole res o nateswith under ly ing truth. Superwoman and Stuporman:Par ent hood and Part ner ship exam ines the effects ofpar ent hood on mar riages and the divi sion of labor, pro -pos ing that spe cial iza tion in tasks is effi cient but doesnot have to be drawn along tra di tional gen der roles.

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