Wet nurse
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A wet nurse is a woman who breast feeds a baby that is not her own.
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[edit] Reasons for use
A wet nurse may be employed if the birth mother of a baby is unable to breast-feed her infant for reasons such as:
- drug use (prescription or illegal)
- illness
- death
- insufficient production of breast milk.
- unwillingness
Wet nurses have also been required following multiple births where the mother feels incapable of adequately nursing all of the children herself, though the breast would respond to demand, increasing in yields and volume to meet the need over a period of weeks.
Some wet nurses are also trained to serve as a midwife during childbirth.
[edit] Historical use
The practice of using wet nurses is ancient and found in many cultures.
In Prophet Mohammed's history in late 6th century, it was reported that Mohammed took breast milk from a wet nurse named Halima Sadia. It was a tradition in Arabia in that time to give babies to the wet nurses.
Wet nursing was reported in France by Louis XIV in early 17th century. In the past, members of higher classes would have their children wet-nursed. This is an outgrowth of an old tradition—noblewomen would not breast-feed, and could become pregnant again sooner, to ensure an heir, if they were not nursing their infants.
Wet nursing has sometimes been used with old or sick people who have trouble taking other nutrition. John Jacob Astor and John D. Rockefeller reportedly hired wet nurses for their own use in their old age. [1] In the novel The Grapes of Wrath, one character wet nurses another.
Wet nurses were common for children of all social ranks in the southern U. S. during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
H.L. Hunt, the famous Texas oil man,nursed his mother until he was seven years old (1896). Hunt was something of a prodigy and his mother rewarded him by allowing him to continue nursing at her breast long past the customary weaning age. He finally stopped this practice when his father found him suckling his mother while she was standing in their kitchen kneading dough. As an adult, H.L. Hunt wrote about this without embarrassment in a book he authored. Source: Texas Rich,The Hunt Dynasty by Harry Hurt III (W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 1981) pp 26-27.
[edit] Current use
Through the recent widespread availability of infant formula, wet nurses are not as necessary in developed nations and, therefore, are not common there. The use of a wet nurse is still a common practice in many developing countries.
