Unlatched: The Evolution of Breastfeeding and the Making of a Controversy

Journalist Grayson makes her mothering experience into a research project in this book-length justification for her choice to breastfeed her daughter into toddlerhood. To lend her arguments context, Grayson looks to historical precedent, from wet-nursing in 3000 B.C.E. to Industrial Revolution-era animal milk-based substitutes, and to other countries, taking a press trip to Taipei and Skyping with a health expert in Hanoi. Closer to home, she interviews an attachment parenting expert, a onetime door-to-door infant formula salesman, a microbiologist studying the composition of breastmilk, and even her own parents, all in order to understand how American culture has come to regard breastfeeding as admirable but difficult. Grayson’s well-researched history lessons are mixed with plenty of anecdotes about her own children, but her firm focus on proving her point, coupled with her status as a freelancer, might make her unrelatable to both full-time parents and those navigating office life. [em]Agent: Mel Parker, Mel Parker Books. (July) [/em]