Wet nurse

A wet nurse is a woman who nurses a baby that is not her own. A wet nurse may be employed if the birth mother of a baby is unable to breast-feed her infant for a variety of reasons. Some reasons may include the use of certain drugs (prescription or illegal), illness, or inoperative breasts. Also members of higher classes would have their children wet-nursed. This is an outgrowth of an old tradition — noblewomen would not breast-feed, and could become pregnant again sooner, to ensure an heir, if they were not nursing their infants.

Through the recent widespread availability of infant formula, wet nurses are not needed in developed nations and, therefore, are not common in such countries. The use of a wet nurse is still a common practice in many developing countries.

Though it is not widely known in developed countries, a woman who has never been pregnant may produce milk. Through frequent stimulation of the areolae and nipples, a woman may begin lactating and, therefore, be able to nurse. This ability also enables women who have previously been pregnant to nurse children to whom they did not give birth.