Unlatched: The Evolution of Breastfeeding and the Making of a Controversy

by Jennifer Grayson

Overview

Since the rise of artificial formula, we have turned a biological process into a never-ending controversy: A mother breastfeeding her three-year-old son on the cover of Time magazine sets off a firestorm. Facebook takes down photos of women nursing, citing the content as “offensive.” The pope weighs in, urging mothers to nurse their children in church or elsewhere “without thinking twice.”

So how did we get here? What are the consequences of surrendering eons of human evolution for a mode of feeding so alien? Growing up, journalist Jennifer Grayson thought nothing of the fact that she was bottle-fed. But when she became a mother, Grayson considered the impact of missing out on this profound connection. Her book is a worldwide search for answers about the first, most fundamental experience of newborn life.

From biblical times to eighteenth-century France, from modern-day Mongolia to inner-city Los Angeles—Unlatched uncovers astonishing cultural, corporate, political, and technological factors at the heart of our contemporary breastfeeding disconnection.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062423399
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	07/05/2016
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Jennifer Grayson is an environmental journalist and Huffington Post columnist whose work has appeared in publications including USA Today, the Washington Post, and American Baby. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two young daughters.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 Formula-Fed Me 7

2 What Would Baby Jesus Drink? 29

3 Milk Mysteries and Maternal Duty 54

4 Industrial Age vs. the Breast 73

5 Doctor Knows Best 94

6 Extraordinary Attachment 118

7 Latch Off, Latch On 151

8 Breasts Are for Men 177

9 Big Brother and the Breast 204

10 "We Complete, Not Compete" 232

11 The Human Experiment 254

12 The Weaning 279

Acknowledgments 295

Sources 301

Editorial Reviews

04/18/2016
Journalist Grayson makes her mothering experience into a research project in this book-length justification for her choice to breastfeed her daughter into toddlerhood. To lend her arguments context, Grayson looks to historical precedent, from wet-nursing in 3000 B.C.E. to Industrial Revolution-era animal milk-based substitutes, and to other countries, taking a press trip to Taipei and Skyping with a health expert in Hanoi. Closer to home, she interviews an attachment parenting expert, a onetime door-to-door infant formula salesman, a microbiologist studying the composition of breastmilk, and even her own parents, all in order to understand how American culture has come to regard breastfeeding as admirable but difficult. Grayson’s well-researched history lessons are mixed with plenty of anecdotes about her own children, but her firm focus on proving her point, coupled with her status as a freelancer, might make her unrelatable to both full-time parents and those navigating office life. Agent: Mel Parker, Mel Parker Books. (July)

Publishers Weekly

Unlatched is an intelligent, often funny, deftly written page-turner. Honestly, I’m surprised at how enthusiastically I find myself recommending a book about breastfeeding. Perfect not just for new parents, but for anyone who loves a good read.” — -Anne Hathaway

“Grayson’s book beautifully explains how we got to the breastfeeding brouhaha that exists in America today. This book is recommended reading for anyone who has breasts or loves them.” — -Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein

“I’m hearing more and more that the root of much evil in our bad health is formula-feeding instead of breastfeeding, and with terrific investigative chops Jennifer Grayson nails the most insidious part of this: the government’s role in hocking formula to the most vulnerable among us.” — -Michael Moss, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and New York Times bestselling author of Salt, Sugar, Fat

“Unlatched is a deeply engaging, highly personal, well researched, and thoughtfully balanced account of how modern society has denormalized breastfeeding.” — -Marion Nestle is professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University and author of, among other books, What to Eat.

“Unlatched is an essential book, not only for every parent to-be, but for physicians as well. Jennifer Grayson asks all the right questions, and it is clear that we must stop letting politics, money, and societal expectations trump good science.” — -Dr. Lauren Streicher, renowned women's health expert, clinical associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, and author of Sex Rx: Hormones, Health, and Your Best Sex Ever

From the Publisher

Unlatched is an essential book, not only for every parent to-be, but for physicians as well. Jennifer Grayson asks all the right questions, and it is clear that we must stop letting politics, money, and societal expectations trump good science.

Dr. Lauren Streicher

I’m hearing more and more that the root of much evil in our bad health is formula-feeding instead of breastfeeding, and with terrific investigative chops Jennifer Grayson nails the most insidious part of this: the government’s role in hocking formula to the most vulnerable among us.

Michael Moss

Grayson’s book beautifully explains how we got to the breastfeeding brouhaha that exists in America today. This book is recommended reading for anyone who has breasts or loves them.

Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein

Unlatched is a deeply engaging, highly personal, well researched, and thoughtfully balanced account of how modern society has denormalized breastfeeding.

Marion Nestle is professor of nutrition

Unlatched is an intelligent, often funny, deftly written page-turner. Honestly, I’m surprised at how enthusiastically I find myself recommending a book about breastfeeding. Perfect not just for new parents, but for anyone who loves a good read.

Anne Hathaway

★ 09/01/2016
Environmental journalist Grayson provides insight into the present-day "mommy wars" and the government's role in the ongoing controversy about whether "breast is best." She transcends today's conversation about whether formula-fed babies are less healthy, and, if working mothers are to blame, instead probing deep into the history of many cultures. Moving into an investigation of Western society, she considers early 20th-century professional literature claiming that "It is easier to control cows than women," eventually segueing into the impact of current state-funded programs that offer free formula to new mothers such as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). VERDICT Grayson is an accomplished writer whose own story is woven throughout her careful research. Her global perspective is a welcome addition to this important debate. Unequivocally recommended.

Library Journal

2016-04-30
A new analysis of the controversy surrounding women breast-feeding their children.For millennia, breast-feeding has been the primary method of feeding children, and both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization recommend six months of "exclusive breastfeeding (no additional foods or fluids, not even water)…for optimal growth, development, and health." Environmental journalist Grayson provides abundant interesting research to show the evolution of breast-feeding through the centuries to the present day. She interviews women from a variety of backgrounds and cultures, including Orthodox Jews and mothers in Taiwan, France, and Mongolia, and she adds her own experiences with breast-feeding her two daughters to show how different cultures view this method of feeding. Since there are abundant health advantages, the milk is readily available, and it's free, the author wondered why so many women don't breast-feed. She clearly explains how many women gradually shifted from this ready-made way to feed children to using animal milk, wet nurses, and then formula as alternatives, the pros and cons, and the health consequences for children and mothers as a result. She discusses the birth of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children and the rise in the number of lactation consultants and groups advocating for breast-feeding. The author also examines the difficulty that women who work face when they need to pump milk and are not provided with clean, private spaces to do so, and she offers suggestions on how this might change. She delves into the sexual overtones that many cultures have laid on the breast that influence and affect how men, in particular, view breast-feeding, especially when a child has reached a certain age. For women who breast-feed, Grayson's research offers ample reasons why they should continue for as long as possible; for those women trying to choose between breastfeeding or formula, the author will help sway them toward the breast. Persuasive arguments backed by scientific research that clearly demonstrate the benefits of breast-feeding for as long as possible.

Kirkus Reviews