Talk: Deborah Brown: The National Breastfeeding Campaign in Imperial Germany

This presentation will explore the complicated relationship between women, the state, science, and public health policy in Imperial Germany and chart the contradictory role of women as mothers in the nation-wide campaign for breastfeeding by looking specifically at breastfeeding and women as arbiters of the practice. Ms. Brown will also discuss the conception of women in the debates about breastfeeding and attempts to chart the intersections between public health policy, scientific medicine, and new bureaucratic 'technoscience' practice of the state as the Imperial government attempt to control maternal practice.