Nighttime Breastfeeding: An American Cultural Dilemma
ISBN: 9781782384366
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / Berghahn Books
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: Public Health ; Sociology ; Anthropology;

Nighttime for many new parents in the United States is fraught with the intense challenges of learning to breastfeed and helping their babies sleep so they can get rest themselves. Through careful ethnographic study of the dilemmas raised by nighttime breastfeeding, and their examination in the context of anthropological, historical, and feminist studies, this volume unravels the cultural tensions that underlie these difficulties. As parents negotiate these dilemmas, they not only confront conflicting medical guidelines about breastfeeding and solitary infant sleep, but also larger questions about cultural and moral expectations for children and parents, and their relationship with one another.


Cecília Tomori is a medical anthropologist who has worked as a health services researcher at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine and the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center and is currently a Research Associate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Cecília Tomori is a medical anthropologist who has worked as a health services researcher at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine and the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center and is currently a Research Associate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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