A wet nurse is a woman who nurses another woman’s child for a fee. It is used when a mother cannot breastfeed due to illness or other reasons. Cross-nursing is a variation used in some communities. In developed countries, it has been replaced by milk banks and infant formula, but it still plays an important role in developing countries.
A wet nurse is a woman who nurses another woman’s child, usually for a fee. There are a variety of reasons for using a nanny, and nanny has a long history in most parts of the world. While the practice is not as widespread in industrialized nations as it once was, breastfeeding is still practiced in many developing countries. One variant, cross nursing, involves using a part-time wet nurse and breastfeeding your baby the rest of the time.
One of the most common reasons for hiring a wet nurse is that the mother herself cannot breastfeed. Some mothers are ill or exposed to toxins and drugs that can harm the baby. Other mothers simply aren’t producing milk, or in some cases, a baby has a bad reaction to breast milk. In these cases, a wet nurse is hired to provide nourishment for the child, and in some cases the wet nurse also acts as a nanny. If a mother dies, survivors may choose to hire a wet nurse who doubles as a nurse nanny.
Another reason to hire a nanny is reluctance to breastfeed. Some women find breastfeeding unattractive, even though they want their babies to benefit from breast milk. Historically, upper-class women were often reluctant to breastfeed because they wanted to increase their chances of getting pregnant as soon as possible after giving birth. On the other end of the spectrum, some lower-class women weren’t willing to breastfeed because they didn’t want to waste time at work.
Many mothers believe that breastfeeding is healthy for a baby, as milk is naturally formulated to provide nutrition for a growing baby. Breastfeeding also establishes a connection between infant and mother, which some organizations like La Leche League believe is jeopardized by the use of a wet nurse. The cross-nursing variation strikes a balance between breastfeeding your baby and using a wet nurse, and some mothers argue that it helps build a community, since cross-feeding is often done by neighbors or by mothers who take care of each other’s children.
In most developed countries, wet feeding has largely been replaced by milk banks and infant formula. In the late twentieth century, a small segment of more affluent women revived the practice so they could continue to advance their careers while having children. In developing countries, breastfeeding plays an important role in some societies, especially in countries with high maternal mortality due to infections such as AIDS.
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