Mal-Nutrition

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.

Mal-Nutrition documents how maternal health interventions in Guatemala are complicit in reproducing poverty. Policymakers discuss how a critical window of biological growth around the time of pregnancy—called the "first 1,000 days of life"—determines health and wealth across the life course. They claim that fetal development is key to global development.

In this thought-provoking and timely book, Emily Yates-Doerr argues that controlling mothering is a paradigmatic technique of American violence that serves to perpetuate privilege and power. She highlights the efforts of Guatemalan scientists, midwives, and mothers to resist the harms of such mal-nutrition. Their powerful stories offer insight into a form of nutrition science and policy that promotes collective nourishment and fosters reproductive cycles where women, children, and their entire communities can thrive.