# Wetnurse: why the fuss? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 28, 2003, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wetnurse-why-the-fuss/198249 "2003-08-28T19:06:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2003, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wetnurse-why-the-fuss/198249/1 "2003-08-28T19:06:34Z")
[This may be better elsewhere, if so, the mods should feel free to move it.] On another list, someone stated that their wife had given birth and could not breastfeed. I suggested he find a wetnurse rather than bottlefeed. There was immediate uproar. The list is all male, BTW. WTF?!?! Wetnurses have been part of society since the year dot, if largely unacknowledged. Why such an uproar? ---
**Author:** ![belladonna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9fc29f/32.png) [@belladonna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/belladonna)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2003, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wetnurse-why-the-fuss/198249/2 "2003-08-28T19:21:30Z")
Yep, this should be in IMHO since it’s a personal opinion sort of thing rather than a question with a factual answer. If you e-mail a mod they’ll move it and you’ll probably get a better response. As to the OP though, I don’t know where the aversion is rooted. Especially coming from men, although I can see how a mother might not want to feel as if she could so easily be "replaced. I’m a nursing mother myself, and I don’t think that I’d be very comfortable with it. One or two feedings from another nursing woman wouldn’t bother me, but completely depending on a wet nurse would make me feel like I was neglecting my son somehow. Not really logical, I know, but little about maternal instincts are. Not to mention, I doubt it’d be very easy to find a wet nurse in any of the industrialized countries anymore… ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2003, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wetnurse-why-the-fuss/198249/3 "2003-08-28T20:30:46Z")
The logistics would be pretty difficult in the modern world. I believe that in the past, the baby either went to live with the wet nurse or vice versa. Alternatively the wet nurse of choice was often a close neighbor or relative–my grandmother nursed a friend’s child for a while back in the '30s. Not so easy to get 24 hour child care these days. Also, while formula is not ideal, at least it’s a known quantity. You don’t have to worry about your bottle’s love life or drug/drinking habits. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2003, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wetnurse-why-the-fuss/198249/4 "2003-08-28T20:49:39Z")
Since the advent of AIDS and the dramatic increase of Hepatitis B & C, exchanging breast milk has been curtailed, since these diseases are passed through breast milk. There used to be a milk bank in almost all hospitals caring for premature infants, but they no longer exist. There is no way to sterilize breast milk without damaging the short term immune protection so important to newborns. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2003, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wetnurse-why-the-fuss/198249/5 "2003-08-29T02:44:06Z")
The thread was started twice so I merged the two copies. This is more a matter of opinion than fact so I’ll move this thread to IMHO. bibliopahge moderator GQ ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2003, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wetnurse-why-the-fuss/198249/6 "2003-08-30T04:31:49Z")
Since breastfeeding anymore is seen as a very personal bonding between mother and child, I can see why someone would be adverse to this. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2003, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wetnurse-why-the-fuss/198249/7 "2003-08-30T13:30:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Guinastasia \* > \*\*Since breastfeeding anymore is seen as a very personal bonding between mother and child, I can see why someone would be adverse to this. \*\* \ Wow! an actual instance of “anymore” being used to mean something like “these days.” I know it was on the dialect survey, but I’d never seen it used that way before then, so I had on idea what they meant by it 😃 Still looks damn strange though… \