Customer Reviews

Milk, Money, and Madness: The Culture and Politics of Breastfeeding

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This book takes a historical and cultural look at breastfeeding and formula-feeding. Fact-based and well-researched, this book is full of thought-provoking information and information that is not usually made public knowledge due to politics and profit interests.

Sections cover: * Breastfeeding customs around the world * Wet nursing, surrogate feeding and healing qualities of breastmilk * Cow's milk is for cows * Artificial feeding * The global search for formula sales * Women and work

Of particular interest is the United States' historical/cultural lack of support of global breastfeeding policies and the strength given to formula companies to dictate the health of America's babies.

This book explains the WHO Code in detail and how American companies are ignoring it; it also explains the Nestle Boycott (which my family is a part of!).

It's not just all emotion....the authors have facts and figures and references. The historical content was so interesting to me.

In a perfect world, all mothers would breastfeed their children; this isn't a perfect world by any means. If, however, those who are against breastfeeding (for whatever reason), would read this book, perhaps they would see things differently.

And yes, there are mothers who can not breastfeed, no matter how hard they work at it, no matter how much support they have...I'm not against artificial baby milk: I'm against the way it's marketed and the way the companies undermine a new mother's attitude - by supplying her with formula as she leaves the hospital - in a "Breastfeeding Success" diaper bag! Honestly, I received one of these after having my son. What kind of message is that for a new mother - and why are we allowing this to happen in the USA after agreeing to adhere to the code?

Everyone ought to educate themselves - especially expectant parents, fathers included!!! The WHO Code is an important agreement and we should all be aware of it. This book is perfect reading - loaded with information.

This book should be required reading for all teenagers as part of their economics classes, their sociology classes, and their health classes. The subject matter in this book covers all of this range. Shown is the health implications for babies who are denied their mother's milk. This is especially important for those babies who are artificially fed in undeveloped countries where there is no access to clean water or sanitation. For those babies, artificial feeding is not only a substandard choice, it is a deadly one. Further, this book illustrates why the chioce to artificially feed infants is being made in more often in these countries, dealing especially with the lies the formula companies perpetuate. Readers will understand how a multibillion dollar business has been developed on the backs of babies.

Readers will also learn, probably for the first time, that the behaviour of formula companies has become so evil that there are a number of international organizations that have ongoing efforts to save babies from the deadly consequences of the formula manufacturer's lies. Many will be surprised to read of a decades old boycott, and an ethical marketing code developed by the World Health Organization, both of which have been flaunted and ignored by the formula manufacturers.

Most readers will be familiar with movies and novels that deal with drug manufacturers making deadly substances and knowingly hiding the information, even at the risk of many deaths, in order to reap the profits. Milk, Money, and Madness will detail such a story. It's all true and much more evil and insidious than anyone will ever suspect until they read the book.

I read this book before I gave birth to my first child. (I am the mother of six.)It made such an impact on me that I have been a breastfeeding advocate ever since. This book covers cross cultural aspects of breastfeeding. Beware that this book has the possibility to make a mother feel very guilty for not breastfeeding. It gives a mother infinite reasons of why human milk is what every infant is entitled to consume. I have used this book as a reference to many research projects from formula study to mother - infant bonding. Fathers should be encouraged to read this book. No man should question a mother's right to breastfeed after he reads the views put forth in this masterpiece. I agree with other reviewers that all teenagers should read this book. Future generations would benefit from current generations reading this book.

This book is an intelligent, thought provoking look at the way our culture has methodically turned it's back on one of the most basic acts of nurturing our children. I don't see how anyone who reads this book could look at those seemingly innocent formula ads the same way again. It's easy to read and well documented and has lots of fascinating pictures and diagrams. I'm going to include it on my list of books to give to expecting parents.

Once elegantly dubbed "...intimate to the degree of being sacred" by the US government, in practice, breastfeeding is not regarded as highly by underdeveloped nations nor is it really held as sacred by developed countries. Thus, this book is certainly a timely essay on breastfeeding practices around the world. But Baumslag and Michels really aimed at setting the record straight for normal infant nutrition; they analyze the cultural practices surrounding natural, and hence normal, feeding in infants and bravely expose the lucrative business of artificial, and hence abnormal, infant nutrition. They also explain in great detail the almost miracle properties of human milk, as opposed to artificial formulae, and how it protects children far beyond infancy in ways no health insurance can. Unfortunately, they avoid discussing practical issues, such as the means to enhance milk production or even breastfeeding techniques. Neither pharmacologic galactogogues, such as metoclopramide, nor the scientific basis for their proper use, are discussed in any detail. Furthermore, the obvious lack of pharmaceutical support and funding for studies in the field of galactogogues (which would be an area of fruitful research, by the way) is not dealt with in this book. The fact remains that, even now, with less than 50% of all new mothers attempting exclusive breast-feeding, and with less than 20% of them maintaining it for four months in a row, there is still a lot to be learned in the fields of psychology, sociology, endocrinology and even economics to explain these disappointing statistics. All things considered, this book is a serious step in the right direction.

Provocative, infuriating, incredible...a compelling mix of economics, international relations, political maneuvering, and class issues, along with histories of American business, culture and family, public health, obstetrics, and child-rearing trends. Absorbing, memorable, and well-documented. Must read for women, parents, health workers, youth workers, students of international business, and anyone who crafts health policy.

This is very well researched and should inspire anyone to believe that breastmilk is the only way to feed a baby. After reading this book, anyone will become a staunch breastfeeding advocate and will cringe to see a bottle in a baby's mouth, diaper bag, or a formula ad appearing anywhere. I love the information on how respectfully women are treated around the world, expected to nurse and nurture their babies- and then contrast that with how poorly the US society treats women. still! Six weeks isnt' long enough for moms and new babies and Dia points out the wonderful ways that the rest of the industrialised world copes with the reality of nurturing the next generation

This definitive history of formula, pharmaceutical companies and infant death is highly readable, despite its depressing topic. While it would be comforting to think that formula fed babies only die at a higher rate than breastfed in places without access to clean water that just ain't so -- never has been, never will be, and the companies which make formula know that. Which is why the code of advertising (which formula -- which is to say, pharmaceutical -- companies continue to violate) adopted in the early years of the boycott applies around the world, including in the U.S.

Along the way, Baumslag and Michels include some really amusing sidelights like the invention of the stroller by a New York man, and its adoption by Queen Victoria. One tiny snit: they're anti-swaddling, considering it a barbaric, backward practice that only occurs in backward, barbaric places and should be stamped out.

This book should be on every mother-to-be's MUST READ list. It goes into great detail about breastfeeding in other cultures, how the medical establishement derails a mothers efforts before she can even get started, and the overly agressive marketing tactics of the formula manufactures.

There are heartbreaking tales of the number of babies who were killed by artifical feeding.

I cannot reccomend this book enough! Read it before you have children, it will make you see formula (and the Nestle corporation) in a whole new light.