Breastfeeding Michael Anderson
Tarleton State University

Breastfeeding
This paper will discuss breastfeeding from a cultural aspect and the history about breastfeeding. Breastfeeding has seen its ups and down over the years with the technology and modern society that people have today. This paper will look at a few key aspects of breastfeeding and how it has survived over the years even though technology and society has changed breastfeeding as a whole.
History of Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding has always been around since the early days of mankind. In those early days there were no bottles to give children as a form of breastfeeding. People simply had to breastfeed in order to feed their children. Bottle feeding is seen as modern or fashionable and bottle feeding is seen as natural. There is also an economical aspect of breastfeeding versus bottle feeding. There are a lot of people who cannot afford bottle feeding so they resort to breast feeding. Around the 1800’s breastfeeding was a healthy option and that women would find some joy in breastfeeding. In some cases mothers would hire wet nurses to do the nursing for them as they could not do it themselves. Wet nurses would also sell their breast milk as another option instead of nursing a child. The 20th century is a time when culture became the major influence over biology. Breastfeeding was a common practice among the middle and upper class. Wet nurses were still being used up until about the 1920’s because of issues that were seen as problems. Some of those problems were that wet nurses were poor, black, and mistrusted. Breastfeeding saw a major decline after 1910 when bottles were introduced. It was estimated that only 20% of American women were breastfeeding. In this day and age 75% of women start out breastfeeding which is a major increase from 20%.

Cultural Differences As a whole culture will