UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Liquid
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Liquid Gold: Breast Milk Banking in the United States A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirement for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology by Marisa Gerstein Pineau 2012 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Liquid Gold: Breast Milk Banking in America by Marisa Gerstein Pineau Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology University of California, Los Angeles, 2012 Professor Rebecca Emigh, Chair Over the course of the 20th Century, breast milk banks have facilitated the exchange of breast milk from mothers with an excess supply to infants in need. But while early banks used a seller model, purchasing milk as a commodity from lower class women, today banks use a donor model, relying on middle class women who give their milk away as a gift. This dissertation explores why the commodified model of breast milk banking first arose, and why banked breast milk was giftified (but still commodified) by the end of the century. I use content analysis of institutional records from three banks operating in three different eras, and interviews with current milk bank managers, donors, and parents of recipients to address these questions. My analysis indicates that in each era a confluence of factors, in particular women’s employment, conceptions of motherhood, medical practices and beliefs, and technologies shapes the exchange of banked breast milk. In the early 20th century new technologies made the physical disembodiment of breast milk possible, while mothering practices and medical authorities’ preferences promoted breast milk’s symbolic disembodiment, promoting the milk’s ii commodification, while limited employment opportunities created a pool of willing sellers.
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