Wet nurses have been around to feed other women’s babies since women started having babies, but in the last few generations wet nurses have fallen out of favor, mostly because of the introduction of formula, among other reasons.
In 2007 a small series of articles noted a new minor reemergence of wet nursing, often in the form of cross nursing, when two or more women feed each others’ baby in a child care arrangement. In 2009, while on a humanitarian mission to Sierra Leone, Salma Hayek made headlines by breastfeeding a newborn African baby. So what do you think? Is modern day wet nursing weird or wonderful?
Articles:
“Salma Hayek on Why She Breastfed Another Woman’s Baby” by Kimberly Kaplan at ABC News 11 Feb. 2009.
“Modern Day Wet Nursing” by Carol Lloyd at Salon.com 26 April 2007.
“Not Your Mother’s Milk” by Viv Groskop in The Guardian 5 January 2007.
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Hi
I just found the podcast yesterday and am listening to some of the old episodes. I’m really enjoying it so far. :)
I found this topic really interesting, especially the part about Victorian wetnurses. I’ve never been or used a wet nurse but I have cross nursed.A friend fed my baby once just because she happened to be holding her when she was crying and I was busy. She asked if I minded and I said I didn’t since the two of us know each other and I trust her. My little one drank happily, but looked a little confused when she saw me across the room, as if to say “if you’re over there, whose boob is this?”
I’d happily feed someone else’s baby too. Ever since I was about six months pregnant (and I’ve now been bf for three years) I’ve felt the let down whenever I heard a baby (any baby) cry, or even heard about a hungry baby (a news story about an orphan baby girl found in the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake made me leak milk). If I’m holding a baby and it gives a hungry cry it takes a lot of self control NOT to just feed it, so it seems very natural to me.
I wonder if people who think that feeding someone else’s baby is being “disloyal” to your own have a problem with tandem nursing a newborn and an older child as I’m currently doing. Would they think that feeding my newborn is being disloyal to my daughter, or that continuing to feed my daughter is disloyal to my newborn? As long as your general health and nutritions is okay feeding an extra baby increases the milk supply rather than decreasing it.
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