"The Myths of Motherhood:How Culture Reinvents the Good Mother" by Shari L. Thurer

        I stumbled over this in the bookstore and have been amazed by it all the way through.   It was published in 1994 by Penguin Books.  She uses historic, artistic, literary and religious data to analyse the status of mothers and children throughout time.  I will never think of the Roman Empire in the same way again!  She seems to be rather impressed with wet nursing and ther are frequent references to this.  Also, she reflects on the pressures placed on women by their culture and the effects this had on their mothering or lack of it.  I had not known of all the "public information campaigns" throughout the ages that attempted to change behavior.  Sometimes they were effective, and sometimes there was an opposite effect (such as the establishment of foundling homes which actually increased abandonment of babies).  For those of you into the quotes, this is a treasure trove.
        "Finally, all the inveighing against the use of wet nurses had some effect, at least in England.  By the second half of the eighteenth century, the practice at long last began to conform to the propaganda, and wet-nursing rapidly went out of fashion among the wealthier classes....Whether mothers knew of the rish to their children or not, they insisted on using foster nurses.
Is this so different than the ABM used today?
Anyone who has already read this already, I would love to hear comments.  It is a really thought provoking and disturbing book.
tracy throckmorton rn iblclc
portland oregon
[log in to unmask]