You’ll Want to Grab This Book on Breastfeeding and Lactivism

You’ll Want to Grab This Book on Breastfeeding and Lactivism

Lactivism is the advocacy of breastfeeding. It is also the title of a new book by Courtney Jung. Its full title, Lactivism: How Feminists and Fundamentalists, Hippies and Yuppies, and Physicians and Politicians Made Breastfeeding Big Business and Bad Policy, gives you a solid sampling of what this piece of writing is all about.

On the back of the book, Patricia Pearson says it best: “With a nimble grasp of social and cultural trends, Jung shows how the best of intentions – encouraging mothers to feel comfortable breastfeeding – can turn into the worst of societal instincts: piety, judgment, the production of damning yet misleading data about breast being best, and rampant economic opportunism. If you’re like me, and only ever managed to produce four molecules of milk with a breast pump, this even and astute analysis of modern breastfeeding will absolve you of sin.”

Many reporters have taken to the subject of Jung’s book and started responding, from the New York Times book review to women contributors at Slate and the Wall Street Journal bringing their own thoughts and revelations to the discussion started by Jung. Check out a copy for yourself!!

Cover image courtesy of Shutterstock.