Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy

But in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America, against the backdrop of a rapidly industrializing and increasingly wealthy nation, a new expert—the doctor—came to be the indispensable authority on these topics. In his 1894 book The Care and Feeding of Children, Dr. Luther Emmett Holt advised against relying on women’s wisdom and experi

Until the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010, 88 percent of individual plans did not cover maternity care.

For all the talk of “empowered birth,” in American society mothers and expectant mothers have far less power than we should. Everything we do is measured against an impossible standard of what we ought to do, what is “best.” Variation is seen not simply for what it is, biological and cultural variety, but as a deviation from what is perceived as no

was only in the twentieth century that researchers came to understand menstruation as part of our species-sustaining reproductive process and not a hideous scourge that caused food to spoil.

Studies show that breast-feeding is good for a baby’s immunological health: breast-fed babies have lower instances of colds and viruses.7 And when they do get sick, breast-fed babies are often able to recover quickly because their mother’s body produces the specific antibodies needed to quell their infection.

The vast majority of resources on pregnancy and motherhood direct our eyes and minds to issues that don’t actually matter in the grand scheme of things. The problems we face are much bigger: a culture in which men hold nearly all of the legal and economic power; a society in which whiteness is considered the norm and superior to other races and cul

Nutritionally, breast milk is a complete and perfect food, an ideal combination of proteins, fat, carbohydrates, and nutrients.

Other sugars are also present, including some 150 oligosaccharides (there may be even more—scientists are really just beginning to understand them) and complex chains of sugars unique to human milk (I repeat: unique to human milk). These oligosaccharides can’t be digested by infants; they exist to feed the microbes that populate a baby’s digestive

Fetal cells have been found in breast tissue and breast milk, hinting that they could have a hand in increasing their own food supply.