wet nurses
Hired infant feeders
A wet nurse is a woman who breastfeeds and cares for another woman's child.
Before infant formula became widely available, wet nurses were essential when a mother could not or chose not to nurse her own baby.
The practice was common among wealthy families and in foundling hospitals.
The aristocratic family employed a wet nurse for their newborn.
The term sometimes appears figuratively to describe someone who provides excessive care or hand-holding.
- breastfeedingLactation-based infant nourishment
- sucklingUnweaned infant mammal
- breast milkMammary secretion for infants
- mother's milkMammalian infant nutrition
- amahAsian domestic servant
nanny · hired help · domestic service · lactation · milk supply · infant feeding · infant · foundlings · caregiver · foster care · motherhood · orphanages · colostrum · baby formula · churching · lying-in · midwifery · au pairs
- Victorian childhoodstreet children, foundlings, urchins, waifs, destitute children
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- Domestic Lifehousework, cleaning, laundry, sewing, childcare
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