Progressive Mothers, Better Babies: Race, Public Health, and the State in Brazil (1850-1945) by Okezi T. Otovo (review)

Linking valuable Brazilian historiographic themes like race, public health and nation building, Okesi Otovo's Progressive Mothers, Better Babies unveils national concerns, while at the same time dealing with the singularities of the state of Bahia and the city of Salvador. As such, it analyzes the modernization reformist project that was formed after the establishment of Brazil's Republic in 1889 which identified the population's precarious sanitary conditions as the main obstacle to achieving progress, with the concept of Hygiene as a "save-all" strategy. And it explores the intersections between maternalist discourses and practices, adding a profound reflection about the place of black women in this process.

The author situates her research between 1850, the end of slave trafficking in Brazil, and 1945, the end of Get ulio Vargas' 15-year period of uninterrupted government, when national mother-and-child health politics were implemented. Over five chronologically arranged chapters she reveals a non-linear process of transformation marked by ruptures and continuities, especially with regards to how race dominated the organization of Brazilian society, particularly in Bahia.

The permanence of slave-based social relations in Brazil, even after the late abolition of slavery (in 1888)—in particular the practice of using black wet nurses—played an essential role in the process of pushing through sanitation proposals in private family spaces. The fight against high infant mortality, attributed to digestive/alimentary problems, which in turn were presumed to have negative consequences for the future and progress of the Brazilian nation, was a key element in combating the mercenary practice of breastfeeding. It united all of the intellectual elite interested in modernization and achieved the status of a patriotic duty. Physicians, members of this professional elite and in the process of achieving social legitimacy, assumed the task of addressing this problem through sanitation and assistance measures in philanthropically based institutions, which were later institutionalized into maternal and child care policies in the governments of Getúlio Vargas.

According to Otovo, the emergence of the maternalist movement in Brazil by the end of 19th century and how it unfolded in political and institutional domains reflected and simultaneously constituted the gender and racial inequalities that persisted throughout the following century. Renovating conceptions about mothers' ignorance in the matter of children rearing, the young Brazilian Republic put into action mother-and-child protections, which trained women in motherhood based on scientific practices and medical supervision. This was seen as the hope for future nation building. In this context, the tradition of handing white babies over to be breastfed by black wet nurses, a practice that persisted after the abolition of slavery, was fought against, with the desire to extinguish the memory of slavery and pave the way for a progressive and civilized future.

In Bahia, which is considered the birthplace of Brazil, the connection between motherhood and race evoked images linked to black and mixed-race women's wombs and breasts, perpetuated by Gilberto Freyre (1990) in his expression "Mulata-velha." This metaphor gave a special dimension to Bahia's maternalism and the exploitation of the productive and reproductive work of black women.

Though it was framed by a broader national setting, Bahia maintained a closer and long-standing association with the slavery model in social and working relations. As expressed by the author, even after the change in the political system and the end of slavery, black and mixed-race women worked as household servants, wet nurses, nannies, cooks and laundresses, reflecting the legacy of slavery and the intimate association between motherhood and servitude. Different from the rest of the country, where the focus on the working class prevailed, in Bahia, black women and their children were the main beneficiaries of governmental assistance in the Vargas' Era, which gave them—although on different levels—access to State protection.

Otovo supports her research using...