Out of Milk
Alicia Berenson
2023
In Out of Milk, medical anthropologist Emily Barrett investigates how global systems — from economics to policy to culture — have shaped infant feeding practices. With deep compassion and academic rigour, she explores how access, inequality, and misinformation affect the way families feed their babies, and how breastfeeding support can be improved worldwide.
Why It’s Included:
This book thoughtfully examines the broader context of infant feeding without undermining the importance of breastfeeding. It honours the emotional complexity of feeding decisions while critiquing the commercial, structural, and cultural forces that undermine breastfeeding and informed choice.
Who It’s For:
Highly recommended for lactation professionals, advocates, policymakers, and anyone working to support breastfeeding within real-world systems. Also helpful for parents seeking to understand the sociopolitical landscape of infant feeding.
“Food insecurity in the context of infant feeding is confronting and this book reflects that unsettling feeling as it explores the reality for mothers juggling fear of low milk supply against fear of low funds to purchase breastmilk substitutes. The privilege of choice is laid bare as women describe their lack of choice in the face of poverty.”
Further Reading:
The Politics of Breastfeeding – Gabrielle Palmer
Lactivism – Courtney Jung
