Sharing Milk

Intimacy, Materiality and Bio-Communities of Practice

Carter, Shannon K., Reyes-Foster, Beatriz M., Shannon K. Carter, Beatriz M. Reyes-Foster

• Publisher: Bristol University Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781529202083
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781529202113
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Gender Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

The feeding of human milk to socially and biologically unrelated infants is not a new phenomenon, but the Euroamerican values of individualism have generated expectations that mothers are individually responsible for feeding their own infants.

Using a bio-communities of practice framework, this dynamic new analysis explores the emotional and material dimensions of the growing milk sharing practice in the Global North and its implications for contemporary understandings of infant feeding in the US.

Ranging widely across themes of motherhood, gender and sociology, this is a compelling empirical account of infant feeding that stimulates new thinking about a contentious practice.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Information
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Notes on the Authors
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• 1 Introduction: Sharing Milk
• 2 Theorizing Milk Sharing
• 3 Entering Bio-Communities of Practice
• 4 Milk-Sharing Practices
• 5 The Milk-Sharing Network
• 6 Conclusion
• Notes
• Appendix A: Survey Participant Demographics
• Appendix B: Interview Participant Demographics
• References
• Index