Paper Title
Start Date
12-6-2011 9:30 AM
End Date
12-6-2011 12:00 PM
Subject Areas
Europe, modern, activism, bodies, children, motherhood, politics, reproduction
Abstract
This article describes the complicated relationship between women, the state, science, and public health policy in Imperial Germany. This article charts the contradictory role of women as mothers in the nation-wide campaign for breastfeeding by looking specifically at breastfeeding and women as arbiters of the practice. Following a sharp rise in infant mortality rates throughout Europe in the late 1800s, discussions about the causes of this increase led to a new national interest in infant feeding practices in both public and private circles. This article describes trends and regional differences in breastfeeding within Germany from 1871 to 1914. Sharp regional differences in both the incidence and duration of breastfeeding are present around 1910. Breastfeeding declined in urban areas between the late nineteenth century and World War I. The article discusses the conception of women in the debates about breastfeeding and attempts to chart the intersections between public health policy, scientific medicine, and new bureaucratic ‘technoscience’ practices of the state as the Imperial government attempted to control maternal practice. Mediated by social, economic, cultural, and historical variables, breastfeeding became a topic of great importance for the nation’s future strength, and, as a result, this article argues, the proprietors of breastfeeding actually became objectified and manipulated by the state in order to bolster its future strength.
Keywords
breastfeeding, women, mother, politics, public health, Imperial Germany
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
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A Nation's Strength in Mother's Milk: The National Breastfeeding Campaign in Imperial Germany, 1871-1914
This article describes the complicated relationship between women, the state, science, and public health policy in Imperial Germany. This article charts the contradictory role of women as mothers in the nation-wide campaign for breastfeeding by looking specifically at breastfeeding and women as arbiters of the practice. Following a sharp rise in infant mortality rates throughout Europe in the late 1800s, discussions about the causes of this increase led to a new national interest in infant feeding practices in both public and private circles. This article describes trends and regional differences in breastfeeding within Germany from 1871 to 1914. Sharp regional differences in both the incidence and duration of breastfeeding are present around 1910. Breastfeeding declined in urban areas between the late nineteenth century and World War I. The article discusses the conception of women in the debates about breastfeeding and attempts to chart the intersections between public health policy, scientific medicine, and new bureaucratic ‘technoscience’ practices of the state as the Imperial government attempted to control maternal practice. Mediated by social, economic, cultural, and historical variables, breastfeeding became a topic of great importance for the nation’s future strength, and, as a result, this article argues, the proprietors of breastfeeding actually became objectified and manipulated by the state in order to bolster its future strength.