Virginia Thorley

Dr Virginia Thorley is an Honorary Research Fellow in History at the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Queensland. She completed her PhD in 2007 and MA in 2000, both from the University of Queensland's School of History, Philosophy, Religion, and Classics (now the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry). Her PhD thesis examined 'Australian mothers' decisions about infant feeding: an historical analysis of public health advice, marketing, and other factors influencing their choices, 1900-2000,' while her MA thesis focused on 'Feeding their babies: Infant feeding advice received by Queensland women in the postwar period, 1945-1965.' Thorley's research centers on historical aspects of breastfeeding, infant feeding practices, mother support, wet-nursing, human milk use, and associated social, cultural, and medical influences. She is recognized for her contributions as OAM, PhD, IBCLC, FILCA, with continuous involvement in the breastfeeding field since 1966.

Thorley has produced substantial scholarly work, including the book Mother to Mother: The history of the Queensland branch of the Australian Breastfeeding Association, 1969-2009 (2009). Her eight book chapters feature recurrent contributions on 'Induced lactation and relactation' in texts such as Core Curriculum for Interdisciplinary Lactation Care (2018, 2013) and Core Curriculum for Lactation Consultant Practice (2008), alongside chapters in The 10th Step and Beyond: Mother Support for Breastfeeding (2012) and The 21st Century Motherhood Movement (2011). Among her 102 journal articles are 'Infection, a hazard of wet-nursing: how beliefs about transmission historically have shaped protective measures' (Journal of Human Lactation, 2022, with Tomasz Sioda), 'Conditions of boarded out babies of wet-nurses, colonial Australia' (Journal of Human Lactation, 2021), 'Embodied mothering: Valuing breastfeeding in a neoliberal age' (Breastfeeding Review, 2021), 'Human milk as a medicine historically' (Pharmaceutical Historian, 2019, with Sioda), ''School Milk' in the Context of the Australian Dairy Industry' (Rural History, 2016), and 'A mother, yet not “mother”: the occupation of wet-nursing' (Journal of Family Studies, 2015). Her publications inform historical and contemporary understandings of lactation, milk sharing, and maternal health support.

Professional Email: v.thorley@uq.edu.au