Thank You Amah: Breastfeeding and Raising Esteem trough a Medieval Example

Abstract

Donations to women and men who have been in charge of raising the little princes and princesses appear in some documents of Medieval Kings and Queens. The study of these generous donations raises some questions related to the reasons claimed for the reward, the character of the services or the consideration of breeding and breast-feeding. This article focus on these three aspects analyzing documents of the Kingdom of Castile in the XIII century, time of changes on ideas about the upbringing of children and in particular about breastfeeding: mother´s milk is considered the best to feed the child. Queens and women of the nobility did not have time to breast-feed their children, so they required wet-nurses to do it for them. While wet-nurses and nursemaids were in charge of feeding and educating the children, women could keep giving birth to more children or dedicating the time to other chorus; that way wet-nurses contributed to empower queens and other women, who, on the other hand, were pretty influential as part as powerful families.