"Little Mothers" & "Robust Babies:" Motherhood, Breastfeeding and Childrearing Literature in 20th Century Brazil

Presented by Victoria Langland, Associate Professor of History & Portuguese, University of Michigan

When: 4pm, University Club (432 E. Campus Mall)

Langland's talk examines guidance on breastfeeding directed at women through childrearing books and popular magazines in early to mid-20th century Brazil. As other scholars have demonstrated, state officials and medical professionals in this period directed extensive maternal and infant health programs at poor and working-class women, including efforts to encourage breastfeeding. Through very different means, middle- and upper-class women also received strong messages about the importance of breastfeeding as a maternal duty.

By examining both sets of discourses together we can begin to understand popular understandings and practices about maternity, women's bodies, and infant nutrition, and their transformations over time. This talk is part of a larger study that looks at changing ideas about breastfeeding and the meanings of national public health more broadly that help explain Brazil's rise as a world leader in human breast milk banking.

Free and open to the public! Sponsored by the A.W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship Program of the Center for the Humanities and Institute for Research in the Humanities. Co-sponsored by LACIS, the Brazil Initiative, the Department of History, and the International Division.