Unlatched
The Evolution of Breastfeeding and the Making of a Controversy
by Jennifer Grayson
Praise for Unlatched
“A deeply engaging, highly personal, well researched, and thoughtfully balanced account of how modern society has denormalized breastfeeding.”
—Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health, New York University, and author of What to Eat
“Recommended reading for anyone who has breasts or loves them.”
—Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein, filmmakers of The Business of Being Born
“An intelligent, often funny, deftly written page-turner.”
—Anne Hathaway
“It is time for an unflinching look at the breastfeeding obstacles women face in our society and in Unlatched, we have it. A must-read book for every mother and mother-to-be.”
—Alyssa Milano
“With terrific investigative chops Jennifer Grayson nails the most insidious part of this: the government’s role in hocking formula to the most vulnerable among us.”
—Michael Moss, Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter and New York Timesbestselling author of Salt, Sugar, Fat
About the Book
Since the rise of artificial formula, we have turned a biological process into a never-ending controversy: A mother breastfeeding her three-year-old son on the cover of Time magazine sets off a firestorm. Facebook takes down photos of women nursing, citing the content as “offensive.” The pope weighs in, urging mothers to nurse their children in church or elsewhere “without thinking twice.” So how did we get here? What are the consequences of surrendering eons of human evolution for a mode of feeding so alien? Growing up, journalist Jennifer Grayson thought nothing of the fact that she was bottle-fed. But when she became a mother, Grayson considered the impact of missing out on this profound connection. Her book is a worldwide search for answers about the first, most fundamental experience of newborn life. From biblical times to eighteenth-century France, from modern-day Mongolia to inner-city Los Angeles—Unlatched uncovers astonishing cultural, corporate, political, and technological factors at the heart of our contemporary breastfeeding disconnection.
About the Author
Jennifer Grayson is an environmental journalist and Huffington Post columnist whose work has appeared in publications including USA Today, the Washington Post, and American Baby. She was the winner of the 2017 Rachel Carson Environment Book Award for Unlatched. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two young daughters.
HarperCollins