[JeanLynn81]

I know, I don't breastfeed and this isn't exactly my forum, but I just had a thought about something while watching a movie last night. The movie was Marie Antoinette, and in it she had her baby girl, but they would not allow her to to breastfeed the infant. They employed a special nurse to do it for her. Now she was the new queen of France, and my guess is this did this because it would be inappropriate for the people to see their queen bf'ing. (Just a guess-anyone know if this is the real reason why?) She clearly wanted to do it herself, and even asked, but was brushed off with "Why would you want to when we have a nurse to do it for you?"

Do you think this is something royal families still do today? Granted, I'm sure they could do it themselves if they wanted because its not politically correct otherwise. But what if they wanted a nurse for that specific reason? Hmm..just random thinking here...

[twinzplus3]

Very interesting question. A wet nurse was a very common occupation at that time and in fact, the movie did not do a good job of explaining why entirely. They did make it seem like it would be unseemly to see their queen nursing but that had nothing to do with it.
It wasn't bc it would've been inappropriate it was because nobility wouldn't breastfeed so that the wife could get pregnant more quickly to produce more heirs. Keeping in mind that this was a time when infant and childhood morbidity was a lot higher and life was a lot shorter.

As far as today, I highly doubt it. I am sure that royals now would either bf themselves as it is coming back into fashion per se or they would just bottle feed. Once formula became accessible and wide spread, the wet nurse became obsolete. So there you have it, probably more than you wanted to know about wet nurses huh?!

[mcmama]

I think Princess Diana had some difficulty with this. I don't remember exactly what the problem was. Probably the reality of her having to travel so much.

Princess Grace of Monaco was a great advocate for breastfeeding back when it was not popular, and gave La Leche League a lot of support.

[JeanLynn81]

Originally Posted by Valorie

So there you have it, probably more than you wanted to know about wet nurses huh?!

Nah...you actually answered perfectly. Thanks for the info-I was just curious. You are right, the movie doesn't get into it that much.

[kimchee67]

I never knew that was the reason behind wet nurses. That's really interesting.

[twinzplus3]

The movie was really interesting from a historical perspective but fairly inaccurate and speculative. On the one, I really enjoyed where she went with the speculations but on the other hand I cringe to think that a whole group of people will get their information about a major historical event based on that movie! When my kids are older and we're studying the French revolution and French court, I totally plan to have my kids watch it though!

[bauchbaby]

Maxima of the netherlands is breastfeeding, also Mette-Marit of Norway and i think Letizia of Spain too. Nowadays the Royals in Europe are pretty modern families that live more or less like we do. In Europe is breastfeeding not an issue, you can do it in public without problems.

But i think most of them have nannies.

[Alejandros Mommy]

Originally Posted by twinzplus3

Once formula became accessible and wide spread, the wet nurse became obsolete.

Actually it isn't obsolete nowadays....there in a company in the Western portion of the US that is advertising for "wet nurses" for moms who want the benefits of BF'ing but can't or don't want to do it themselves. Very interesting....it was on the news a while back.

[twinzplus3]

Really? I had never heard of that. And technically wet nurses are still very, very common in developing countries. But as far as being a common occupation in society, the bottle and the formula took over.

[JeanLynn81]

Wouldn't that confuse a baby? Who would the baby think "mom" is if someone else is having the intimate bf'ing time?