Wanted: Wet Nurses.

[spidermama]

Wouldn't it be great if you could look up a wet nurse in the Yellow Pages then go for a night out even when BF? They had wet nurses (women who'd BF your baby for you) in days of yore.
My mw told me if a woman has lactated she can do so again, even ten years down the line, just as long as a baby sucks for long enough. Has anyone heard of this?

Aaaah! "Milkmen" Men who breastfeed.

I think most would agree that she was ... er ... radical soupdragon. I'm interested in the idea of giving birth alone though. That appeals to me no end. Not that I've had the guts to follow through.

I'm a wuss . Far to scared of the mysterious Things That Could Go Wrong.

HIV can deffinatly be transmitted via the breast milk. However in countries where it is not possible to bottle feed safely (due to poor water supply/ problems affording enough milk powder, mothers are advised to BF. The baby would be at more risk for GI troubles.

In developed countries the advise is not to BF if you have HIV

I'm new to MN and really impressed at how clued up you all seem to be.

Had to teach HIV/AIDS to my sixth form, so hit the books a few weeks ago

I know the woman who breastfed her friend's baby Alexsmum. She is very sweet.

i loved this bit from the wet-nurse site!

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.

what a strange & lovely thread!
dh denying that men can lactate, have followed the link but can hardly believe it myself!
nothing wrong with bfing another's baby, if all are happy with the arrangement
i looked into milk donating recently, but there's nowhere near me that does it - apparently 1 oz can feed some prem babies for 24 hrs, & even be life-saving in some cases. now that wd be well worth the effort

Message withdrawn

Well worth it Roosmum. Amazing stuff, breatmilk.

We adopted our Ds's and DS2 was coming to us as a new born. I spent months and months trying to get myself primed to BF. Lots of pumping and far to many hormone tablets I finally achieved it only to have the adoption halted the next day by birth mom!

OMG Jayz. Painful process. Great effort though. All due respect.

I have a columbian friend and her and her friends breastfeed each others babies as a matter of course. I wouldn't be happy with others breastfeeding my baby though - unless it was an absolute emergency and they couldn't get hold of formula for love nor money. I think this is because of HIV risk. What about Hepititus C. Surely that can be transmitted through breastmilk too?

spidermama, I know a few women who've given birth without medical help, just with their husbands there. Not on purpose, mind you, but still ...

It was a third baby for one woman, and a second for the other. The woman having a third baby had a fifteen minute labour. Apparently it hurt quite a bit.

I'm sure an intentional unassisted birth is different, though.

Message withdrawn

I remember reading stuff on that site ages ago. Very strange. Actually, I think there have been lots of conversations about her on here, not surprisingly. She's mad, but also quite interesting.

we seem to have to things going on here!! unassisted birth and breastfeedinf.
I would be quite scared to have an unasisted birth (am I a baby!!) I just think we have come so far in child birth and eliminated alot of risk, so why put yourself and baby back in danger. i had lovely home from home births with my last 2 the midwife just sat in a chair and didnt interfere at all untill the final pushing bits! Both largish babies..no stitches

I totally support wetnursing. I feel sure that it would have helped me with bf. I wouldn't have felt panicked about dh losing a bit of weight if I had had another woman, or community of women, who could have ensured that he had enough milk if I were struggling.

Since I'm a lazy cow there would be a risk that I would just have farmed him out tho

Sorry, clearly that should have read community of lactating people, rather than women.

Must tell my dh.

I had an accidental unassisted birth a few weeks ago. The plan was to have a homebirth but I left it too late to call the midwife, and when DS2 actually arrived DH was upstairs getting towels. It wasn't quite the birth experience I expected but it all turned out ok (although DH was somewhat shaken by the whole thing).

Oh, acnebride, your comment about "farming out" reminded me - wet nursing used to be really quite a bad habit. In France in the 17th (I think?) century, posh women didn't bf, as they felt it would stop their boobs looking "ideal" (very small and pert, essentially), so for the firstborn son, you'd hire a wetnurse to live in your house and feed him. For later kids (or earlier girls), you'd send them out to be wetnursed in the country, without you.

As you'd expect, the country wet nurses weren't always very concerned about the safety and nutrition of their charges. They were weaned onto gruel as soon as possible. Their survival rate wasn't that good.

I think the idea of swapping babies or helping mind each other's babies is great, but hired wetnurses don't sound so good to me.

wow at your homebirth, mrs w!
i guess it all happened pretty fast then eh?! (thought mine was quick at 2.5 hrs - induced in hospital tho)
hope you're all doing well - a good story to be able to tell too!

Yes you're right NQC. I guess I don't really mean wetnursing, more just popping round for coffee and breastmilk with mates.

However, it works best if you have a community of women all churning out babies throughout their reproductive lives so that your mum is still lactating and producing siblings for you while you start on yours -!

All of a sudden that formula looks pretty good...

'Popping round for coffee and breastmilk!' I love that.
I tend to bf my babies exclusively until at least 6, more usually 8 month old. I love it and it works well for me, but the only drawback is I can't go out for any length of time without my baby. I'd love my sister or good friend to just give me one or two evenings off and I'd do the same for them.