There is a woman living a relatively quiet life with her only child in Indiana, except that she provides breastmilk for other babies. She began this journey by pumping for her own daughter and over the next 11 years she provided breastmilk for 13 children. And who knows how many additional babies received her donated milk via milk banks. Read more of her story.
This sparked my curiosity and I decided to delve deeper into the subject of wet nurses. Take a look at this excerpt from "Childbirth or The Happy Deliverie of Women" by James Guillemeau, London 1612.
Of A [Wet] Nurse, And what election, and choice ought to be made of her:
"She must have a pleasing countenance, a bright and cleare eie, a well formed nose, neither crooked, nor of a bad smell, a ruddie mouth, and verie white teeth: She must deliver her words well, and distinctly, without stammering: and she must have strong and big necke: for thereby (as Hippocrates saith) may one judge, of the strength of the bodie. She must have a broad and large breast, garnished with two Paps of a reasonable bigness, neither limber, nor hanging down, but betweene hard and soft; full of Azure veines and Arteries, not being either knottie, of swolne bigger than they should be: the nipple which is in the midst of the breasts, ought to be somewhat eminent, and withall a ruddie colour like a Strawberie, it must be of a reasonable bignesse and thicknesse, and of a easie draught, that the child may take it the better, and sucke the easier."
Well I'm enjoying a good laugh. It's worth reading Guillemeau's entire essay on how to properly choose a wet nurse. However, the sad truth is that this sounds like a cattle auction. Does any woman deserve to be sized up like this?
Here's a company in Los Angeles that offers a variety of services including wet nurses for hire. I didn't know anything of this kind existed in the western world. (I wonder if she has to have a straight nose and non-knottie breasts.) In 2007, wet nurses through this staffing agency were paid $1000/week. Not a shabby salary.
More women are feeding each others' babies for various reasons. Sometimes it's for convenience when the baby's mother is away; other times it is because the mother did not produce enough milk for her baby. In an earlier post, Twenty Breastfeeding Mothers...One Breastfeeding Baby, I talked about baby Moses and the wet nurses that provided breastmilk after his own mother died.
Sharing unprocessed milk--milk banks screen their donors and pastuerize the milk--is discouraged among the medical community as well as LaLeche League International. The concern is the passing on of unknown viruses such as HIV.
In the April 2007 Time magazine article "Outsourcing Breastmilk" Natalia Chang, 29, who has cross-nursed with neighbor [says]: Breast milk is 'a communal commodity around here.' [She] says cross-nursing brought her closer to her neighbor. 'It takes female friendship to another level. You're trusting another person to nurture your child,' she says."
When I was having difficulty nursing my first son in the early 80's, I would have gladly accepted milk from a friend to get us over the hurdle. Would you accept milk from a friend if you needed it?