Symposium at UNCG Looks at Breastfeeding through a Feminist Lens

Dramatic changes in employment patterns in recent decades have brought women many new opportunities. But alongwith these gains come challenges, including the well-documented work-family dilemma—the struggle to be employed and provide for a family's health and well being at the same time. A woman's ability and willingness to breastfeed is strongly related to the social and labor structures of which she is part. If it is not possible to incorporate the practice into her daily schedule, she will probably not do it. Recent national data show that most women introduce formula early and do not breastfeed for very long, thereby decreasing the health benefits of the practice.

“How do we address this dilemma?” said Paige Hall Smith, Director of the Center for Women's Health and Wellness at UNC Greensboro. Research has focused on psychological and physiological reasons why women breastfeed, but less on larger social determinants. “How do we create social structures, policies, and programs in our societies that continue to advance the status of women, while at the same time making it possible for women and men to care for children and advance their health and that of their families?” said Smith. How can women effectively combine labor force participation with breastfeeding?

Smith, the 2004-2006 Linda Arnold Carlisle Professor of Women's and Gender Studies, has organized a symposium, “Breastfeeding, Motherhood and Feminism,” that will bring together a panel of women who are mothers, feminist scholars, practitioners, policy makers and advocates. The symposium will take place April 15, 2005 , from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. , in the Elliott University Center 's Cone Ballroom. A reception will follow.

Breastfeeding is a feminist issue, Smith said. But thinking of it this way is relatively new. “Feminism has said little historically about breastfeeding, and much of what was said was negative” said Smith. But today's feminist scholars who see the benefits of breastfeeding want to bring these ideas into dialogue. “We want to develop policy informed by feminism,” said Smith. Breastfeeding advocates and feminists would benefit from a more congenial dialogue about women as mothers, agreed Bernice Hausman of Virginia Tech, who will be the keynote speaker at the symposium. “Social controversies around breastfeeding reveal social tensions concerning the meaning of women's bodies, the authority of science, and the value of maternity in American culture.”

The symposium will engage this timely dialogue in a way that is not yet being done across the country. Mary Rose Tully, Director of Lactation Services at the Women's and Children's Hospitals at UNC Health Care, will moderate a panel, which will explore how feminism could impact breastfeeding practice, promotion, and social acceptability. Panelists will draw from their varied professional experiences to discuss breastfeeding and feminism from the perspectives of health care, public policy, nutrition, and health promotion. “We anticipate that the symposium will be interesting to a variety of people—students faculty, practitioners, and others from the community interested in women's lives,” said Smith.

In addition to Smith, symposium participants will include:

• Bernice Hausman , Ph.D., Associate Professor of English and Director of the Women's Studies Program at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Her main research interests are sexed embodiment, feminist and gender theory, and cultural studies of medicine. She is the author of many scholarly articles and the book Mother's Milk: Breastfeeding Controversies in American Culture (2003), which draws on medical studies, feminist scholarship, anthropological literature and Hausman's own experiences to demonstrate what is at stake in mothers' infant feeding choices.
• Mary Rose Tully , MPH, IBCLC, panel moderator. As Director of Lactation Services at UNC Health Care, Tully evaluates, coordinates, and implements breastfeeding education and clinical support across the health care system. She is also an adjunct instructor in the Department of Maternal and Child Health and the Department of Pediatrics at UNC-Chapel Hill. Tully established the Lactation Center and Mothers' Milk Bank at WakeMed in Raleigh , and she is a nationally known speaker and author in the fields of lactation consulting, breastfeeding, and donor milk banking.
• Amy Spangler , MN, RN, IBCLC, affiliate faculty at Emory University School of Nursing. She has served as President of the International Lactation Consultant Association and as Chair of the United States Breastfeeding Committee. She is the author of a variety of educational materials on the subject of breastfeeding, and she lectures widely on maternal and child health topics.
• Ginger Sall , B.A., La Leche League International (LLLI). Sall has been involved with La Leche League since 1981, serving as a volunteer providing mother-to-mother support for breastfeeding in her community, as a volunteer administrator for La Leche League of North Carolina and La Leche League International, and on the LLLI Board of Directors. She currently represents LLLI at United Nations Activities in New York City and on the North Carolina Breastfeeding Advisory Committee.
• Cheryl Lovelady , Ph.D., MPH, RD, Director of the Undergraduate Program in Human Nutrition and Dietetics in the Department of Nutrition at UNC Greensboro . She directs research projects on the effects of diet and exercise on maternal health and lactation performance. She is a Fellow of the American Dietetic Association.

Schedule of Events  

10:30–11:00 a.m. Registration

 11:00–11:15 a.m. Opening Remarks

11:15–12:15 p.m. Bernice L. Hausman (Department of English and Women's Studies Program, Virginia Polytechnic Institute), author of Mother's Milk: Breastfeeding Controversies in American Culture . “Breastfeeding, Feminism, and the Politics of Motherhood”: Talk and Q&A session .

12:30–1:45 p.m. Lunch discussion with Amy Spangler (Affiliate Faculty, Emory University School of Nursing), past President of the International Lactation Consultant Association, past Chair of the United States Breastfeeding Committee, and author of Breastfeeding: A Parent's Guide and other publications. "Babies Were Born to Be Breastfed" [*charge for lunch is $10*]

2:00–3:00 p.m. Paige Hall Smith (Director, Center for Women's Health and Wellness, UNC Greensboro), 2004–2006 Linda Arnold Carlisle Professor. “The Working Mother and Breastfeeding: Feminism's ‘Canary in the Mines'”: Talk and Q&A session .

3:00–4:30 p.m. “Integrating the Value of Breastfeeding into the Social Value of Women's Work”: Panel Discussion and Q&A Session

Moderated by Mary Rose Tully (Director of Lactation Services, UNC Women's and Children's Hospitals). Other participants will be:

Amy Spangler (Affiliate Faculty, Emory University School of Nursing, past President of the International Lactation Consultant Association, past Chair of the United States Breastfeeding Committee, and author of Breastfeeding: A Parent's Guide and other publications)

Ginger Sall (La Leche League of North Carolina and LLL representative to the United Nations)

Cheryl Lovelady (Director of Undergraduate Dietetics Program, UNC Greensboro )

4:30–5:00 p.m. Reception

The symposium was sponsored by the Linda Arnold Carlisle Professorship in Women's and Gender Studies and co-sponsored by the Ulrich Fund of the Center for Women's Health and Wellness.

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