Wet Nurses. Beyond Mercenary Lactation

Abstract

Wet nursing has been a common practice in many cultures and societies, usually related with stratification and social inequality. Political or economic power of some families made it possible to hire or force other women to feed their children, as a result of which arose the figure of the wet nurse, which will be responsible for feeding, care and education of the child during the first years of life. Its practices were the subject of attention by legislators, philosophers and physicians, from antiquity until our days, being extolled by some and criticized by others. Wet nurses"™ services were demanded above all by the wealthy social classes and also by the more modest, in some cases on a whim and others out of necessity. The reasons for being a wet nurse have been related with women"™s individual factors and the sociocultural context in which were developed. These reasons have been servitude and slavery, poverty, gender inequality or Christian charity.