Breastfeeding and Public Health: How the 1970s and 1980s Reframed Infant Feeding

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The Nestle Boycott, environmental toxins, and the role of the federal government in supporting new mothers were all issues under debate in the late 1970s and early 1980s. As a result, breastfeeding went from being framed as a personal decision to an issue of public health. This chapter will explore this shift, paying particular attention to the role race and class played in these discussions. The chapter ends by exploring the activism of Mohawk activist Katsi Cook, whose Akwesasne Mother’s Milk Project brought together an understanding of breastfeeding as connected to public health—but also reproductive and environmental justice, as well as issues of cultural sovereignty.

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