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The feeding of human milk to socially and biologically unrelated infants is not a new phenomenon, but the Euroamerican values of individualism have generated expectations that mothers are individually responsible for feeding their own infants.
Using a bio-communities of practice framework, this dynamic new analysis explores the emotional and material dimensions of the growing milk sharing practice in the Global North and its implications for contemporary understandings of infant feeding in the US.
Ranging widely across themes of motherhood, gender and sociology, this is a compelling empirical account of infant feeding that stimulates new thinking about a contentious practice.
Shannon K. Carter is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Central Florida. Her primary research areas are sociology of reproduction, social inequalities and sociology of health and medicine.
Beatriz M. Reyes-Foster is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Central Florida. Her research interests focus on medical anthropology, medical interactions, and coloniality.
1. Introduction: Sharing Milk
2. Theorizing Milk Sharing
3. Entering Bio-Communities of Practice
4. Milk-Sharing Practices
5. The Milk-Sharing Network
6. Conclusion