June 8th, 2009
In the early to mid twentieth century there was constant conflicting medical advice about how a mother should feed her baby. At least now every major medical association (to my knowledge) recognizes that breast is best. But back then, the advice was not as cut and dry. Below is a WPA (Work Projects Administration) poster encouraging mothers to breastfeed. It was distributed in New York and created in 1938.
However, as the below poster reveals, other agencies and states had another agenda entirely. This is a poster from the Cleveland Division of Health and FDA promoting milk, showing a large bottle of milk next to couples smiling, playing golf, tennis, and two babies. It was distributed in Ohio and was also a part of the WPA Art Program, 1940.
Tags: 1930s, 1940s, breastfeeding history
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September 7th, 2008
Before I even read the caption for this photograph below, I knew it had to have been taken in the 1940s. How is a mother supposed to bond with her baby by breastfeeding when it’s in another room?
Nurse Aiko Hamaguchi, mother Frances Yokoyama, baby Fukomoto, Manzanar Relocation Center, California, 1943 / Ansel Adams
Tags: 1940s, babies, breastfeeding
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August 19th, 2008
Blogging for Mothering magazine is truly a dream come true for me! I never thought in a million years that I would be able to write on a daily basis for a magazine that I adore about a subject I hold dear: breastfeeding.
The angle I will take on breastfeeding here is going to be a bit unconventional. I won’t be blogging about current news and events surrounding breastfeeding. Instead I will blog about historic breastfeeding and show evidence that over the years the formula industry aided in making nursing in public taboo.
Some of you may know me from my personal breastfeeding blog, and others of you may be reading my writing for the very first time. A lot of what I have previously written I will also share here. I will publish a whole host of new photos and archived information about breastfeeding that has largely been lost to history.
On my about page it mentions a photograph I found on the Library of Congress website that prompted me on this never-ending search for more historic breastfeeding photos. Well, here it is. Here is the photo that started it all. I hope you join me as I find more and more photos and writings that show how much nursing in public was a part of everyday life for so many mothers for so long.
I’d like to introduce you to a mother who is traveling from Louisville, Kentucky to Memphis, Tennessee on a Greyhound bus. Here, she is waiting in the Chattanooga bus terminal and breastfeeding in public in September 1943.
Tags: 1940s, breastfeeding in public
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