Matching Items (3)
Description
In this study, I used critical, qualitative methods to explore how the material and symbolic dynamics of milk banking complicate expectations of organizing and (in)effective lactation. Guided by theories of alternative organizing, in/voluntary membership, the structuration of d/Discourse, and corporeal commodification, I conducted document analysis, fieldwork, and interviews with hospital and milk bank staff and maternal donors and recipients. Results trace the (her)story and protocols of the milk banking industry and examine the circumstances of donation and receipt; the d/Discourses of filth, suspicion, and inadequacy that circulate the lactating, maternal body; and the presence or resistance of commodification within each organization.
Milk banking occurs when mothers provide excess breastmilk to parents with low supply or compromising medical conditions. “Milk banking” is used as an umbrella term for different ways of organizing donor milk; organizing evolved from wet-nursing to a continuum of in/formal markets. Formal markets include for-profit and non-profit milk banks that pasteurize and/or sterilize breastmilk for Neonatal Intensive Care Units. Informal markets involve self-organized exchanges online that are driven by monetary ads or donation. Both formal and informal markets elicit questions regarding flows of capital, labor, reproductive choice, and exploitation. However, current research resides in medicine, law, and popular press, so we know little about how milk banking happens in real time or how participation affects maternal identity.
My analysis makes four contributions to organizational communication theory: (1) alternative organizing punctuates the construction of and conflicts between in/formal markets and shows why such theories should be represented as cyclical, rather than linear; (2) membership in milk banking is unintentional and distinct from in/voluntary membership; (3) the obscured organization is a necessary alternative to Scott’s (2013) hidden organizations; and (4) d/Discourses of “safety” are used to discipline and indict, not just represent operational differences. Social-rhetorical implications reveal how milk banking operates as an affective economy (Ahmed, 2004) and mark where privileges and inequalities are present in the absence of data; practical implications suggest consideration of policy changes. Methodologically, this study also offers insight into crystallization (Ellingson, 2009) and participant witnessing (Tracy, forthcoming) and challenges the hegemonic underpinnings of fieldwork.
Milk banking occurs when mothers provide excess breastmilk to parents with low supply or compromising medical conditions. “Milk banking” is used as an umbrella term for different ways of organizing donor milk; organizing evolved from wet-nursing to a continuum of in/formal markets. Formal markets include for-profit and non-profit milk banks that pasteurize and/or sterilize breastmilk for Neonatal Intensive Care Units. Informal markets involve self-organized exchanges online that are driven by monetary ads or donation. Both formal and informal markets elicit questions regarding flows of capital, labor, reproductive choice, and exploitation. However, current research resides in medicine, law, and popular press, so we know little about how milk banking happens in real time or how participation affects maternal identity.
My analysis makes four contributions to organizational communication theory: (1) alternative organizing punctuates the construction of and conflicts between in/formal markets and shows why such theories should be represented as cyclical, rather than linear; (2) membership in milk banking is unintentional and distinct from in/voluntary membership; (3) the obscured organization is a necessary alternative to Scott’s (2013) hidden organizations; and (4) d/Discourses of “safety” are used to discipline and indict, not just represent operational differences. Social-rhetorical implications reveal how milk banking operates as an affective economy (Ahmed, 2004) and mark where privileges and inequalities are present in the absence of data; practical implications suggest consideration of policy changes. Methodologically, this study also offers insight into crystallization (Ellingson, 2009) and participant witnessing (Tracy, forthcoming) and challenges the hegemonic underpinnings of fieldwork.
ContributorsJones, Sarah E. (Author) / Tracy, Sarah J. (Thesis advisor) / Brouwer, Daniel C (Committee member) / Ellingson, Laura L. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Exclusivity and duration of breastfeeding and the provision of human milk in the United States is suboptimal. In the absence of adequate banked donor human milk for distribution to all infants in need, many families choose to engage in the practice of Private Arrangement Milk Sharing (PAMS), partially facilitated through social media, to procure human milk for their infants. Evidence regarding the participant and infant characteristics and risk abatement practices is incomplete. This dissertation describes and explores the characteristics of recipient participants and infants, family constellation, donor screening practices, and related risk abatement strategies. Data was collected via on-line survey as a sub-group of a larger data set including donor participants and international participants. Binary logistic regression modeling of factors that contribute to consistent screening and risk abatement practices and important antecedents to engaging in PAMS was conducted. Results are contextualized within a tailored socioecological framework of factors affecting infant feeding practices. Tailoring was accomplished via qualitative descriptive analysis of participant responses applied to an existing breastfeeding framework. Participants in this sample were predominantly white, married, with a mean age of 32.9 years, with at least some college education and above median income. Risk abatement and screening practices were influenced by support of a healthcare provider during decision-making, college education, infant age and health status, having lactation support, birth type and birth attendant, and the duration and sources sought for learning about milk sharing.
ContributorsBond, Angela Bowen (Author) / Reifsnider, Elizabeth G. (Thesis advisor) / Keller, Colleen (Committee member) / Todd, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Pierre Constant Budin worked in France to improve the lives of newborns and their mothers during the late nineteenth century. Budin stressed the importance of proper nutrition in infants and educated new mothers on breastfeeding and infant care. Budin established infant care facilities and created a nutritional check-up system for infants. Budin helped design early artificial nipples, breast pumps, and incubators for premature newborns. He also began the practice of consulting with new mothers after they gave birth, redefining the roles of obstetricians.
ContributorsRebovich, Kelsey (Author) / Arizona State University. School of Life Sciences. Center for Biology and Society. Embryo Project Encyclopedia. (Publisher) / Arizona Board of Regents (Publisher)
Created2017-02-11