On the Mortality of Infants in Foundling Institutions, and Generally, as Influenced by the Absence of Breast-Milk

Routh, C. H. F.

doi:10.1136/bmj.s4-1.68.308-a

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For infants who were not breastfed by their mothers, being nourished by a wet-nurse was considerably safer, during the 19th century, than dry nursing (see Glossary, Table 1). Yet, even wet-nursed children did not do as well as those maternally breastfed (Routh (1858); wet-nurses, especially if working from their homes and not under the eye of the employer, often provided supplementation to breastfed infants (Fildes, 1988b). It also was understood, in 19thcentury Australia, that the employment of a wet-nurse transferred the risk from the employer's child to the wet-nurse's child, society valuing one infant above another (Editorial, 1871;Sudden death, 1871).…”

Section: Conditions Of Boarded Out Babies Of Wet-nurses Colonial Australiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Historical Research: Conditions of Boarded Out Babies of Wet-Nurses, Colonial Australia

Thorley

2021

J Hum Lact

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Wet-nurses themselves rarely left written accounts. In this article, I have reconstructed their experiences and work situations breastfeeding other women’s infants in colonial Australia through examining available sources concerning their employment situations and the fate of their infants when they were boarded out, as they commonly were. The employment of wet-nurses by royal households or prominent families has long been the topic of historical accounts, whereas the situation of the more numerous wet-nurses further down the social spectrum has received disproportionately little examination. In this article, I do not discuss informal, altruistic wet nursing by family or neighbors but, rather, the situation of those women for whom it was an occupation, by its very nature short term. Primary material sighted for this study included a considerable number of advertisements for positions placed by employers, their intermediaries (e.g., family physicians) and wet-nurses themselves, and newspaper reports when the wet-nurse’s children came to the attention of the courts. Death for boarded-out infants who succumbed to inappropriate feeding and substandard care was typically ascribed to “natural causes.”

show abstract

Section: Conditions Of Boarded Out Babies Of Wet-nurses Colonial Australiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Historical Research: Conditions of Boarded Out Babies of Wet-Nurses, Colonial Australia

Thorley

2021

J Hum Lact

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Prior to the discovery and application of Germ Theory, improved safety in municipal water supplies, and the inspection and regulation of dairies, an infant’s best chance at life was to be nourished at the breast of the mother or, failing that, suckled by a hired wet-nurse. Artificial feeding was practiced to varying degrees in different periods and places and with different ingredients (Cheadle, 1894; Fildes, 1986; Routh, 1858), but—except where abandonment of breastfeeding was customary (Hastrup, 1992)—it was generally accepted that infant survival had been put at risk. Breastfeeding by a wet-nurse offered a significantly better chance for the infant, although society’s opinions of wet-nurses ranged from savior to a necessary evil (Wolf, 1999), and infants fed by wet-nurses had lower survival rates than maternally breastfed children (McClaren, 1979; Routh, 1858).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%