this lovely gem was sent to another list i am on from off of the web
somewhere. i thought in light of the formula, homemade formula,
wet-nursing discussion it may be of some interest.
> Advice on hiring a wet-nurse. Rome, 1st century. A.D. (Soranus, Gynaecology
> 2.18-20. Tr. O. Temkin. L)
>
> A physician's advice;
>
>
> (18) ... To be sure, other things being equal, it is better to feed the
> child with maternal milk, for this is more suited to it, and the mothers
> become more sympathetic towards the offspring, and it is more natural to be
> fed from the mother after parturition just as before parturition. But if
> anything prevents it one must choose the best wet-nurse, lest the mother
> grows prematurely old, having spent herself through the daily suckling.[1]
> ...
>
> (19) One should choose a wet-nurse not younger than twenty nor older than
> forty years, who has already given birth twice or thrice, who is healthy, of
> good constitution, of large frame, and of a good colour. Her breasts should
> be of medium size, lax, soft and unwrinkled, the nipples neither big nor too
> small and neither too compact nor too porous and discharging milk
> overabundantly. She should be self-controlled, sympathetic and not
> ill-tempered, a Greek, and tidy. And for each of these points the reasons
> are as follows:
>
> She should be in her prime because younger women are ignorant in the rearing
> of children and their minds are still somewhat careless and childish; while
> older ones yield a more watery milk because of the atony of the body. In
> women in their prime, however, every natural function is at its highest. She
> should already have given birth twice or thrice, because women with their
> first child are as yet unpractised in the rearing of children and have
> breasts whose structure is still infantile, small and too compact; while
> those who have delivered often have nursed children often and, being
> wrinkled, produce thick milk which is not at its best.
>
> [She should be healthy because healthful] and nourishing milk comes from a
> healthy body, unwholesome and worthless milk from a sickly one; just as
> water which flows through worthless soil is itself rendered worthless,
> spoiled by the qualities of its basin. And she should be of good
> constitution, that is, fleshy and strong, not only for the same reason, but
> also lest she easily become too weak for hard work and nightly duties with
> the result that the milk also deteriorates. Of large frame: for everything
> else being equal, milk from large bodies is more nourishing. Of a good
> colour: for in such women bigger vessels carry the material up to the
> breasts so that there is more milk. And her breasts should be of medium
> size: for small ones have little milk, whereas excessively large ones have
> more than is necessary so that if after nursing the surplus is retained it
> will be drawn out by the newborn when no longer fresh, and in some way
> already spoiled. If, on the other hand, it is all sucked out by other
> children or even other animals, the wet-nurse will be completely exhausted
> ...
>
> The wet-nurse should be self-controlled so as to abstain from coitus,
> drinking, lewdness, and any other such pleasure and incontinence. For coitus
> cools the affection towards the nursling by the diversion of sexual pleasure
> and moreover spoils and diminishes the milk or suppresses it entirely by
> stimulating menstrual catharsis through the uterus or by bringing about
> conception.
>
> In regard to drinking, first the wet-nurse is harmed in soul as well as in
> body and for this reason the milk also is spoiled. Secondly, seized by a
> sleep from which she is hard to awaken, she leaves the newborn untended or
> even falls down upon it in a dangerous way. Thirdly, too much wine passes
> its quality to the milk and therefore the nursling becomes sluggish and
> comatose and sometimes even afflicted with tremor, apoplexy, and
> convulsions, just as suckling pigs become comatose and stupefied when the
> sow has eaten drugs.
>
> [She should be] sympathetic and affectionate, that she may fulfil her duties
> without hesitation and without murmuring. For some wet-nurses are so lacking
> in sympathy towards the nursling that they not only pay no heed when it
> cries for a long time, but do not even arrange its position when it lies
> still; rather, they leave it in one position so that often because of the
> pressure the sinewy parts suffer and consequently become numb and bad. Not
> ill-tempered: since by nature the nursling becomes similar to the nurse and
> accordingly grows sullen if the nurse is ill-tempered, but of mild
> disposition if she is even-tempered. Besides, angry women are like maniacs
> and sometimes when the newborn cries from fear and they are unable to
> restrain it, they let it drop from their hands or overturn it dangerously.
> For the same reason the wet-nurse should not be superstitious and prone to
> ecstatic states so that she may not expose the infant to danger when led
> astray by fallacious reasoning, sometimes even trembling like mad. And the
> wet nurse should be tidy-minded lest the odour of the swaddling clothes
> cause the child's stomach to become weak and it lie awake on account of
> itching or suffer some ulceration subsequently. And she should be a Greek so
> that the infant nursed by her may become accustomed to the best speech.
>
> (20) At the most she should have had milk for two or three months. For very
> early milk, as we have said, is thick of particles and is hard to digest,
> while late milk is not nutritious, and is thin. But some people say that a
> woman who is going to feed a male must have given birth to a male, if a
> female, on the other hand, to a female. One should pay no heed to these
> people, for they do not consider that mothers of twins, the one being male
> and the other female, feed both with one and the same milk. And in general,
> each kind of animal makes use of the same nourishment, male as well as
> female; and this is [no] reason at all for the male to become more feminine
> or for the female to become more masculine. One should, on the other hand,
> provide several wet-nurses for children who are to be nursed safely and
> successfully. For it is precarious for the nursling to become accustomed to
> one nurse who might become ill or die, and then, because of the change of
> milk, the child sometimes suffers from the strange milk and is distressed,
> while sometimes it rejects it altogether and succumbs to hunger.
>
--
Monique
Noah 6/97, Melissa 6/23/00
[log in to unmask]
The same phrase describes my marriage and my breasts:
before the kids, they used to be such a cute couple.
Amy Krouse Rosenthall
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