The History and Definition of Wet Nurse

A wet nurse is a lactating woman who breastfeeds a child who is not her own. Once a highly organized and well-paid profession, wet nurses all but disappeared by 1900.

A Career for Poor Women

Before the invention of infant formula and feeding bottles made wet nursing virtually obsolete in Western society, aristocratic women commonly hired wet nurses, as breastfeeding was seen as unfashionable. The wives of merchants, doctors, and lawyers also preferred to employ a wet nurse rather than breastfeed because it was cheaper than hiring help to run their husband's business or manage a household.

Wet nursing was a common career choice for poor women among the lower classes. In many cases, wet nurses were required to register and undergo medical exams.

During the Industrial Revolution, lower-income families used wet nurses as more and more women began working and were unable to breastfeed. The rural poor—peasant women—began to assume the role of wet nurses.

Read More

Surviving Infancy in the Middle Ages

By Melissa Snell

The Advent of Formula

While animal milk was the most common source for replacing human milk, it was nutritionally inferior to breast milk. Advances in science enabled researchers to analyze human milk and milk. Advances in science enabled researchers to analyze human milk and attempts were made to create and improve on nonhuman milk so that it could more closely approximate human milk.

In 1865 German chemist Justus von Liebig (1803–1874) patented an infant food consisting of cow's milk, wheat and malt flour, and potassium bicarbonate. The introduction of infant formula, the greater availability of animal milk, and the development of the feeding bottle reduced the need for wet nurses throughout the latter half of the 19th century and well into the 20th century.

What's Different Now?

After the rise of formula and the decline of wet nursing, the once common service has become almost taboo in much of the West. But as breastfeeding is becoming an increasingly acceptable practice once more, mothers of infants are feeling the pressure once again to nurse. However, uneven maternity-leave benefits around the nations and the real difficulties of breastfeeding mean that some women would likely benefit from returning to the age-old tradition of wet nursing.

As The New Republic reported in 2014, sharing nursing responsibilities—whether by formally hiring a wet nurse or by figuring out an informal arrangement among friends—was looking to be a reasonable solution that could relieve the burden on working mothers without compromising their babies’ feeding.

The practice remains controversial. Even the breastfeeding advocacy group, La Leche League, was discouraging the practice in 2007. According to spokeswoman, Anna Burbidge: "There are very strong reservations against it, both medically and psychologically. There are potential hazards. The biggest risk is that of infection being passed from the mother to the child. Breast-milk is a living substance expressly designed by your body for your baby, not someone else's."

Despite these risks, it's not surprising that in this age of ride-sharing and spare-room sharing, "milk sharing" is a phenomenon that some families are now trying. A Facebook group and milk-sharing sites have appeared, and according to a Netmums.com piece from 2016, the practice is on the rise. Their 2016 informal poll found that one in 25 women had shared their milk, and 5% of families had used milk from the more regulated source of a milk bank. As the taboo slowly lifts, this age-old practice may just make a real comeback.

Source

• "'Milk sharing' and wet-nursing: the hot new parenting trend." NetMums, November 2, 2016. 
• Appleyard, Diana. "The return of the wet-nurse." Daily Mail, September 7, 2007.
• Robb, Alice. "Bring back the wet nurse!" The New Republic, July 22, 2018.
• Stevens, Emily E., Thelma E. Patrick, and Rita Pickler. "A History of Infant Feeding." The Journal of Perinatal Education 18(2) (2009): 32–39.