Breast is best, or best is fed? In this episode, we tackle one of the most controversial aspects of mothering: feeding. Everyone seems to have an opinion about it. But, as Maddy and Chine find out in this episode, debate about whether and how mothers feed their children has been going on for centuries – including Victorian prudishness about the Virgin Mary breastfeeding Jesus.

No matter how we feed our children, will there always be ways to shame women? Why is feeding often talked about in machine-like ways such as milk ‘production’ and ‘lactation’, and how is technological advancement such as developments in ‘biomilk’ going to transform feeding?

We talk to a range of experts to explore how mothers bear witness to something that society as a whole has forgotten – that we are part of nature, that our bodies require care and nourishment, that we are vulnerable and dependent, and also that the ways in which feeding opens a door intro transcendence. We explore theological ideas of feeding and what it tells us about Christian concepts of God, including 14th century mystic Julian of Norwich’s writing about ‘divine milk’.

Chapters

00:00 The Centrality of Feeding in Motherhood

03:00 Motherhood vs. The Machine: A Broader Perspective

06:01 Personal Experiences with Feeding

09:11 Cultural and Historical Context of Feeding

11:59 The Role of Technology in Feeding

15:02 The Politics of Feeding: Societal Pressures and Judgments

20:38 The Politics of Motherhood and Responsibility

22:42 Cultural Perspectives on Breastfeeding

27:11 Maternal Imagery in Religious Contexts

34:15 Artistic Representations of Motherhood

43:01 Embodiment and Spirituality in Motherhood

Featured in this episode: Joanna Wolfarth, cultural historian and author of Milk: An Intimate History of Breastfeeding; theologian Rachel Muers, chair of divinity at the University of Edinburgh; the Very Rev Dominic Barrington, dean of York Minster; Rev Ayla Lepine, associate record at St James’s Piccadilly and former Ahmanson fellow in art and religion at the National Gallery; Dominic Barrington; medical ethicist and author Claire Gilbert, author of I, Julian.

Keywords

motherhood, feeding, breastfeeding, cultural history, societal pressures, technology, maternal health, infant feeding, public policy, women's experiences, motherhood, breastfeeding, cultural perspectives, maternal imagery, spirituality, art, responsibility, societal norms, religious contexts, embodiment

The Team:

🎙️ Hosts: Chine McDonald (@ChineMcDonald) and Madeleine Pennington (@mlmpennington)

🎬 Executive producer: Stephanie Tam

🎧 Audio editor and sound engineer: David Benjamin Blower

🎛️ Recording engineer and assistant producer: Daniel Turner