Zum nächsten Kolloquium im Rahmen des Herzog-Ernst-Stipendienprogramms der Fritz Thyssen Stiftung laden wir am Mittwoch, 26. April 2017, ein. Ruben Verwaal (Groningen) stellt sein Forschungsprojekt zu “Making Milk. Breast Pumps and Galactagogues in Enlightenment Europe” vor. Unsere Türen stehen offen und interessierte Zuhörer sind herzlich willkommen. Beginn ist um 17 Uhr (s.t.) im Seminarraum des Forschungszentrums auf Schloss Friedenstein.
Der Vortrag wird auf Englisch gehalten und eine kurze Einführung folgt:
Early modern mothers did not like to breastfeed. Many young mothers did not produce enough, suffered from sore nipples, or they wanted to be liberated from this time-consuming practice and fulfil their social and sexual duties. Yet on the basis of medical and chemical studies, physicians were passionately convinced of the benefits of milk and maternal breastfeeding. This paper argues that 18th century physicians developed new strategies to remedy this widespread antipathy against mother’s milk. Besides applying rhetoric in poems and popular how-to books, doctors promoted maternal breastfeeding by developing new galactagogues (drugs that increased lactation) and innovative breast pumps.
Ruben Verwaal is a PhD candidate at the University of Groningen. His research project “Blood, Sweat & Tears” focuses on the role of chemistry of bodily fluids in 18th century medicine and Dutch Enlightenment culture.