What ever happened to wet nurses?
Wet nursing has been around as long as there have been babies. Until technology (such as refrigeration, glass and rubber processing ) and milk surpluses launched the mass production of artificial baby foods, wet nursing was the only viable alternative to the mother breastfeeding. Throughout the Middle Ages in France, all French royal children were suckled by hired women (and several wet nurses were kept in reserve for emergencies). Wet nursing provided a tremendous employment opportunity — providing status, safety, and financial security to uneducated women. Suspicions that syphilis and tuberculosis were transmitted through the milk (they aren’t) helped to speed the decline of wet nursing. One legendary wet nurse was Judith Waterford who in 1831, on her 81st birthday, could still produce breastmilk. In her prime, she unfailing produced two quarts of breastmilk a day. Wet nursing is out of fashion, but still occurs in developing countries when an infant is orphaned. Is breastfeeding ju
