Progressive Mothers, Better Babies

Progressive Mothers, Better Babies PDF Author: Okezi T. Otovo
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 1477309055
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
In Bahia, Brazil, the decades following emancipation saw the rise of reformers who sought to reshape the citizenry by educating Bahian women in methods for raising “better babies.” The idealized Brazilian would be better equipped to contribute to the labor and organizational needs of a modern nation. Backed by many physicians, politicians, and intellectuals, the resulting welfare programs for mothers and children mirrored complex debates about Brazilian nationality. Examining the local and national contours of this movement, Progressive Mothers, Better Babies investigates families, medical institutions, state-building, and social stratification to trace the resulting policies, which gathered momentum in the aftermath of abolition (1888) and the declaration of the First Republic (1889), culminating during the administration of President Getúlio Vargas (1930–1945). Exploring the cultural discourses on race, gender, and poverty that permeated medical knowledge and the public health system for almost a century, Okezi T. Otovo draws on extensive archival research to reconstruct the implications for Bahia, where family patronage politics governed poor women’s labor as the mothers who were the focus of medical interventions were often the nannies and nursemaids of society’s wealthier families. The book reveals key transition points as the state of Bahia transformed from being a place where poor families could expect few social services to becoming the home of numerous programs targeting the poorest mothers and their children. Negotiating crucial questions of identity, this history sheds new light on larger debates about Brazil’s past and future.

Progressive Mothers, Better Babies

Progressive Mothers, Better Babies PDF Author: Okezi T. Otovo
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 1477308857
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
In Bahia, Brazil, the decades following emancipation saw the rise of reformers who sought to reshape the citizenry by educating Bahian women in methods for raising "better babies." The idealized Brazilian would be better equipped to contribute to the labor and organizational needs of a modern nation. Backed by many physicians, politicians, and intellectuals, the resulting welfare programs for mothers and children mirrored complex debates about Brazilian nationality. Examining the local and national contours of this movement, Progressive Mothers, Better Babies investigates families, medical institutions, state-building, and social stratification to trace the resulting policies, which gathered momentum in the aftermath of abolition (1888) and the declaration of the First Republic (1889), culminating during the administration of President Getúlio Vargas (1930–1945). Exploring the cultural discourses on race, gender, and poverty that permeated medical knowledge and the public health system for almost a century, Okezi T. Otovo draws on extensive archival research to reconstruct the implications for Bahia, where family patronage politics governed poor women's labor as the mothers who were the focus of medical interventions were often the nannies and nursemaids of society's wealthier families. The book reveals key transition points as the state of Bahia transformed from being a place where poor families could expect few social services to becoming the home of numerous programs targeting the poorest mothers and their children. Negotiating crucial questions of identity, this history sheds new light on larger debates about Brazil's past and future.

Better Baby Contests

Better Baby Contests PDF Author: Annette K. Vance Dorey
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN:
Category : Agricultural exhibitions
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
A unique campaign of scientific baby judging spread across the United States in the early years of this century. Beginning at state fairs, it spread to towns and cities of all sizes. By the movement's peak in 1913 and 1914, scientific baby contests were held at 40 state fairs and several hundred county fairs and city contests. The baby health contest identified the healthiest infants in a region, while teaching parents how breeding and environment could produce a superior crop. Then, quietly, the contests slipped into obscurity. This work traces the development of the baby health contests from their rural beginnings at agricultural fairs. Details are provided about the early instruments used for assessing infant development, the organizations and individuals behind the better babies movement, and the methods of promoting prize babies. The controversy generated by the competition for prizes is explored, as are the role of the Children's Bureau in the contests, the business aspect of the contests, and the spin-offs of the health contest idea.

The Conflict

The Conflict PDF Author: Elisabeth Badinter
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
ISBN: 1429996919
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 223

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Book Description
In the pathbreaking tradition of Backlash and The Time Bind, The Conflict, a #1 European bestseller, identifies a surprising setback to women's freedom: progressive modern motherhood Elisabeth Badinter has for decades been in the vanguard of the European fight for women's equality. Now, in an explosive new book, she points her finger at a most unlikely force undermining the status of women: liberal motherhood, in thrall to all that is "natural." Attachment parenting, co-sleeping, baby-wearing, and especially breast-feeding—these hallmarks of contemporary motherhood have succeeded in tethering women to the home and family to an extent not seen since the 1950s. Badinter argues that the taboos now surrounding epidurals, formula, disposable diapers, cribs—and anything that distracts a mother's attention from her offspring—have turned childrearing into a singularly regressive force. In sharp, engaging prose, Badinter names a reactionary shift that is intensely felt but has not been clearly articulated until now, a shift that America has pioneered. She reserves special ire for the orthodoxy of the La Leche League—an offshoot of conservative Evangelicalism—showing how on-demand breastfeeding, with all its limitations, curtails women's choices. Moreover, the pressure to provide children with 24/7 availability and empathy has produced a generation of overwhelmed and guilt-laden mothers—one cause of the West's alarming decline in birthrate. A bestseller in Europe, The Conflict is a scathing indictment of a stealthy zealotry that cheats women of their full potential.

Room

Room PDF Author: Emma Donoghue
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350419168
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 97

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Book Description
In this deeply moving and life-affirming tale, a mother must nurture her five-year-old son through an unfathomable situation with only the power of their imagination and their boundless capacity to love. Written for the stage by Academy Award® nominee Emma Donoghue, this unique theatrical adaptation featuring songs and music by Kathryn Joseph and director Cora Bissett takes audiences on a richly emotional journey told through ingenious stagecraft, powerhouse performances, and heart-stopping storytelling. Room reaffirms our belief in humanity and the astounding resilience of the human spirit. This updated and revised edition was published to coincide with the Broadway premiere in Spring 2023.

Motherhood, Childlessness and the Care of Children in Atlantic Slave Societies

Motherhood, Childlessness and the Care of Children in Atlantic Slave Societies PDF Author: Camillia Cowling
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429535805
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 479

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Book Description
This book provides critical perspectives on the multiple forms of ‘mothering’ that took place in Atlantic slave societies. Facing repeated child death, mothering was a site of trauma and grief for many, even as slaveholders romanticized enslaved women’s work in caring for slaveholders' children. Examining a wide range of societies including medieval Spain, Brazil, and New England, and including the work of historians based in Brazil, Cuba, the United States, and Britain, this collection breaks new ground in demonstrating the importance of mothering for the perpetuation of slavery, and the complexity of the experience of motherhood in such circumstances. This pathbreaking collection, on all aspects of the experience, politics, and representations of motherhood under Atlantic slavery, analyses societies across the Atlantic world, and will be of interest to those studying the history of slavery as well as those studying mothering throughout history. This book comprises two special issues, originally published in Slavery & Abolition and Women’s History Review.

Bottled Up

Bottled Up PDF Author: Suzanne Barston
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520270231
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
Discusses the issue of breast feeding and whether it is fair to judge parenting on breast vs. bottle as opposed to making the right choice for a family.

Better Babies and Their Care

Better Babies and Their Care PDF Author: Anna Steese Richardson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Infants
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description


Feeding Baby Green

Feeding Baby Green PDF Author: Alan Greene
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470425245
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
Offers ways for parents to create healthy, nutritious meals that help prevent childhood disease and obesity, in a book that includes diet tips for a pregnant mother and advice on Earth-friendly meals for babies.

American Baby

American Baby PDF Author: Gabrielle Glaser
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0735224692
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
A New York Times Notable Book The shocking truth about postwar adoption in America, told through the bittersweet story of one teenager, the son she was forced to relinquish, and their search to find each other. “[T]his book about the past might foreshadow a coming shift in the future… ‘I don’t think any legislators in those states who are anti-abortion are actually thinking, “Oh, great, these single women are gonna raise more children.” No, their hope is that those children will be placed for adoption. But is that the reality? I doubt it.’”[says Glaser]” -Mother Jones During the Baby Boom in 1960s America, women were encouraged to stay home and raise large families, but sex and childbirth were taboo subjects. Premarital sex was common, but birth control was hard to get and abortion was illegal. In 1961, sixteen-year-old Margaret Erle fell in love and became pregnant. Her enraged family sent her to a maternity home, where social workers threatened her with jail until she signed away her parental rights. Her son vanished, his whereabouts and new identity known only to an adoption agency that would never share the slightest detail about his fate. The adoption business was founded on secrecy and lies. American Baby lays out how a lucrative and exploitative industry removed children from their birth mothers and placed them with hopeful families, fabricating stories about infants' origins and destinations, then closing the door firmly between the parties forever. Adoption agencies and other organizations that purported to help pregnant women struck unethical deals with doctors and researchers for pseudoscientific "assessments," and shamed millions of women into surrendering their children. The identities of many who were adopted or who surrendered a child in the postwar decades are still locked in sealed files. Gabrielle Glaser dramatically illustrates in Margaret and David’s tale--one they share with millions of Americans—a story of loss, love, and the search for identity.