8. "Le bebe en brousse"

Abstract

Gouttes de lait or infant consultation opened up in Belgium particularly in industrial areas among working class populations in the early twentieth century. The Ligue Nationale pour la Protection de lEnfance du Premier Age was founded in 1903. Infant mortality in Belgium was associated with the decline or in some cases absence of breast feeding especially among mothers working in the industrial or agricultural sectors. Although most gouttes de lait seem to have favored breast feeding their provision of sterile breast milk substitutes also permitted mothers not to nurse under medical supervision. In Belgium - and elsewhere - the infant welfare movement had distinct class dimensions. It was frequently a private philanthropic activity. A paternalistic tone concerned to reduce maternal and working class ignorance was common. This tone resurfaced in the colonial context with distinct racial dimensions. We turn now to the colonial scene the novelties it contained for Europeans and the ways puericulture and gouttes de lait were and recast within colonial settings. (excerpt)

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