From folklore to fact: the rhetorical history of breastfeeding and immunity, 1950-1997.

Full Abstract

This article examines the recent construction of human milk's immune-protective qualities as scientific fact, demonstrating that long-standing controversies about human milk's immune-protective effects have not been resolved by a particular scientific discovery. Rather, experts' consensus on how to respond to this uncertainty has been transformed, and this transformation has had as much to do with a change in the metaphor that governs interpretation of evidence about immune protection as it has with discovering new evidence about either human milk or the antibodies in it.

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Author information

Author/s: Koerber, Amy (A);

Affiliation: Technical Communication & Rhetoric, English Department, Texas Tech University, Box 43091, Lubbock, TX 79382, USA. amy.koerber(-atsign-)ttu.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Historical Article; Journal Article

Journal: The Journal of medical humanities (J Med Humanit), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-; vol 27 (issue 3) : pp 151-66

Dates: Created 2006/08/31; Completed 2006/11/06;

PMID: 16858648, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Breast Feeding - psychology
Consensus
Evidence-Based Medicine
Female
Feminism
Folklore
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
History, 20th Century
Humans

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