Paige Hall Smith, Bernice L. Hausman, and Miriam Labbok, Eds. 2012. Beyond Health, Beyond Choice: Breastfeeding Constraints and Realities. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. $25.95. Paper. ISBN: 978‐0‐8135‐5304‐7

• Author: Nina Esperanza Serrianne
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/wmh3.154
• Published date: 01 September 2015
• Date: 01 September 2015

Book Review

Paige Hall Smith, Bernice L. Hausman, and Miriam Labbok, Eds. 2012. Beyond

Health, Beyond Choice: Breastfeeding Constraints and Realities. New Brunswick, NJ:

Rutgers University Press. $25.95. Paper. ISBN: 978-0-8135-5304-7

Beyond Health, Beyond Choice: Breastfeeding Constraints and Realities offers a

multidisciplinary compilation of essays and begins a new conversation amid the

polemical debate around breastfeeding. This comprehensive analysis of breast-

feeding reviews the multiple factors impacting the agency and decisions of

women, including, but not limited to: economics, cultural framework, social

pressures, structural violence, public health (and the use of the Social–Ecological

Model), prenatal care and resources, the medicalization of breastfeeding, and the

gendering of infant care. The book is structured around a commitment to

feminism and public health and integrates issues of race and class.

To address the “varied nature of constraints on breastfeeding” (p. 8), the

book is divided into eight parts in addition to an introduction and conclusion.

“Part I: Frames” is comprised of three essays from the compilation’s editors:

“Feminism and Breastfeeding” by Bernice L. Hausman, “Breastfeeding Promotion

through Gender Equity” by Paige Hall Smith, and “Breastfeeding in Public

Health” by Miriam Labbok. Such a structure ref‌lects both the distinct perspectives

of each editor as well as the inherent intersectionality of the topic of breastfeed-

ing.

“Part II: Studying Breastfeeding across Race, Class, and Culture” addresses a

breadth of issues including structural violence and disparities that emerge in

America as a result of race, with contributions including: “Breastfeeding across

Culture: Dealing with Difference” by Penny Van Esterik, “The Dangers of Baring

the Breast: Structural Violence and Formula-Feeding among Low Income

Women” by Nancy Chin and Ann Dozier, and “Racism, Race, and Disparities in

Breastfeeding” by Joan E. Dodgson. Breaking down the terms “public health” and

“breastfeeding” and analyzing the relevant cultural considerations, the section

effectively frames the basics for the reader. The breastfeeding debate has been

broadened through this acknowledgement of the role of ethnography and the

complex relationship between feminism and public health.

World Medical & Health Policy, Vol. 7, No. 3, 2015

303

1948-4682 #2015 Policy Studies Organization

Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc., 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA, and 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ.