Hi fellow Lacnuts!

Deb Wirtel asked whether upper class women at the time of the Titanic disaster
commonly used wet nurses. It is my understanding that even upper class women
in the Victorian era usually nursed their own babies. The Victorian age was a
very hearth and home period. In fact, Western ideals of hearth and home come
directly from the Victorian era. Wet nurses were employed in the situations of
maternal death which was not uncommon, abandoned infants, and the few cases
where for whatever reason the mother was unable to provide milk for the baby.

I don't know , however, if that was still true during the Edwardian era. Even
if breastfeeding rates had fallen, I don't believe that they would have been
as low as in the 17th and 18th centuries. This young woman may still have seen
a baby at the breast before.

Carol Kelley  LLLL,  history buff
Taylors, SC