TY - JOUR T1 - Examining the use of ‘natural’ in breastfeeding promotion: ethical and practical concerns JF - Journal of Medical Ethics JO - J Med Ethics SP - 615 LP - 620 DO - 10.1136/medethics-2017-104455 VL - 44 IS - 9 AU - Jessica Martucci AU - Anne Barnhill Y1 - 2018/09/01 UR - http://jme.bmj.com/content/44/9/615.abstract N2 - References to the ‘natural’ are common in public health messaging about breastfeeding. For example, the WHO writes that ‘Breast milk is the natural first food for babies’ and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has a breastfeeding promotion campaign called ‘It’s only natural’, which champions breastfeeding as the natural way to feed a baby. This paper critically examines the use of ‘natural’ language in breastfeeding promotion by public health and medical bodies. A pragmatic concern with selling breastfeeding as ‘natural’ is that this may reinforce the already widespread perspective that natural options are presumptively healthier, safer and better, a view that works at cross-purposes to public health and medicine in other contexts. An additional concern is that given the history of breastfeeding in the USA, ‘natural’ evokes specific and controversial conceptions of gender and motherhood. ER -