An
army of wet nurses to fight the war on infant mortality, childhood obesity, diabetes, and breast cancer.
We had a mutual friend who introduced us to the
idea of wet nursing so it wasn't foreign to either of us.
Many believed children inherited physical, mental and emotional
traits of their wet nurses, so the selection process was very important.
Nurse was in charge of the nursery regime - the diapers, the baths, and, especially in the
case of the wet nurse, the nourishment.
This was extended over the ages, particularly in western Europe, where noble women often made
use of wet nurses.
I was also inspired by countless books, including Janet Golden's A Social
History of Wet Nursing in America, Ann Fessler's The Girls Who Went Away, Howard Brinton's Quaker Journals.
According to Walker, the passing of both antibodies and cells through the
milk of wet nurses likely contributed to the survival of royal babies in times past.
On todays show, we learn the
definition of wet nursing and we discuss why some mothers might choose to have their baby fed by another mother.
Feinstock believes that the
number of wet nurses will increase as more women elect cosmetic breast surgery.
Wet nurses were a normal part of the social order, though social attitudes to wet nursing varied, as well as to the social
status of the wet nurse.
These include the
legacy of Wet nursing during slavery, as well as systemic racism in the American healthcare system that does not offer adequate support to African - American breastfeeding mothers.
Then, the breast milk banks replaced the
role of wet nurses — women who breast - fed the babies of family, friends and neighbors — by creating a store of donated breast milk for use in hospitals.
While mothers who have stopped breastfeeding completely «should be encouraged to restart breastfeeding, and the
option of wet nursing (where another mother breastfeeds the baby) should be explored for babies without mothers.»
«Society's negative
view of wet nursing, combined with improvements of the feeding bottle, the availability of animal's milk, and advances in formula development, gradually led to the substitution of artificial feeding for wet nursing,» one report on the history of infant feeding says, also noting that infant formula companies pushed advertising so much that it had a huge impact on society's view of breastfeeding.
Their scenting ability was demonstrated by the bitch who picked her own pups
out of the wet nurse's Utter following her hospitalization.
This extended over time, particularly in western Europe, where noble women often made
use of wet nurses.
[8] The biologist and physician Linnaeus, the English doctor Cadogan, [9] Rousseau, and the midwife Anel le Rebours described in their writings the advantages and necessity of women breastfeeding their own children and discouraged the
practice of wet nursing.
In fact, the historical evidence shows that all native breastfeeding countries, before the Baby - Friendly guidelines, supplemented their newborns with the
milk of wet nurses, sugar water and other forms of liquid nutrition, also called «pre-lacteal feeds,» almost universally until a mother's milk came in.
In America, the use
of wet nurses was more common and had already been used for generations in the south where slaves regularly breastfed and took care of the children from affluent families.
[10] In 1752 Linnaeus wrote a pamphlet against the use
of wet nurses.
The Journal of Perinatal Medicine touts the history
of wet nursing — the practice of nursing a child that isn't your own — dating back to as early as 2000 B.C.
Though historically the use
of wet nurses was common, some women dislike the idea of feeding their own child with another woman's milk; others appreciate being able to give their baby the benefits of breast milk.