Don't Poison Your Baby: Toward an Environmental History of Breastfeeding

Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.

Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation

Information: 215-873-8289 or bbl@chemheritage.org

This talk will explore the historical links between mid-20th-century concerns about the “natural” world and breastfeeding. In the 1950s scientists began reporting traces of DDT stored in the fat of humans, and early animal studies suggested that synthetic chemicals stored in the body might be further concentrated in mother’s milk. Unease over the impact of radiation fallout often focused on milk contamination, and evidence of strontium-90 in baby teeth only heightened anxieties surrounding environmental degradation and infant health. In teasing out some of the potential connections between the history of medicine, chemistry, and the environment, this talk will suggest how shifting understandings of nature and environmental decay shaped ideas about breastfeeding in the decades following World War II.

Jessica Martucci is currently completing her Ph.D. in the History and Sociology of Science Department at the University of Pennsylvania. Her dissertation, “Feeding Babies, Making Mothers: The Science, Practice, and Meaning of Breastfeeding, 1945–1990,” explores the resurgence in the practice of breastfeeding among American mothers and examines how the practice has both shaped and been shaped by shifting ideas about science, nature, gender, and family. Martucci’s research interests include women’s health history, the role of scientific and medical expertise in the construction of family life, and the relationships between science, medicine, technology, nature, and identity in the 20th and 21st centuries.