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Who Said Wet Nursing is Hip AND Funny?
Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Presumably you all know the history of black women and wet nursing. If you're black and reading this, surely you do. If you're not black and reading this, it's not a nice story.

Forced wet nursing during slavery and then wet nursing for survival post-Civil War caused untold pain in the black community that still resides with us today. In my opinion, wet nursing is the primary contributor to the low breastfeeding rate among black women in America. When breastfeeding rates are as low as is currently evidenced among black women, babies and families alike suffer. Because breastfeeding produces so many health benefits to children and mothers, when breastfeeding is noticeably absent in such high numbers, black babies aren't as healthy as they could be. Today, this may not have been the case had black mothers been able to nurse their own children throughout American history instead of being forced to work the fields or be house slaves.

On the farther end of the spectrum, wet nursing was yet another factor that kept black women from bonding with their children both during slavery and afterward. Black women so often were nursing white children that their own children were not able to benefit from the healing properties of breast milk and the natural bond between mother and child. These reasons alone make wet nursing one of the worst institutions imposed upon black women. That's why I don't think it's funny or hip for black women to become or even think about becoming wet nurses today.

TIME magazine ran a piece on April 19 called Outsourcing Breast Milk. In it, Jeninne Lee-St.John, the writer, spoke to a black woman who gleefully (it seems) is a wet nurse.

Brenda (whose last name is withheld to protect her clients' privacy), 42, has wet-nursed 10 babies in the past seven years partly to help send her own two kids to college. She has mulled over the social implications of her work--because she's black and eight of the families she has worked for are white. "A friend asked me, Don't you feel like you're the mammy?" she recalls. But she finds her job fulfilling, and sometimes amusing. "If you're someplace with the family and the baby starts to pull at your blouse or put his hand in your bra, that can be embarrassing," she says, laughing.

How can any black woman in good conscience become a modern-day mammy? I know the money is good, but somewhere the line has to be drawn. There are simply too many historical implications around the wet nursing travesty that has led to devastating breastfeeding rates among black women today. In truth, I didn't know black women were still being wet nurses and I certainly don't want to see it happen in large numbers

Labels: news

posted by Jennifer James @ 5:55 PM,

5 Comments:

At April 29, 2007 10:37 PM, Anonymous said...: Re: the mammy wet nurse

What a disgusting example of a "black" woman.
At June 4, 2007 6:30 PM, Honey said...: I have to comment because what so many black women were forced to do (nurse another child) is in no way wet nursing...it is a type of rape. (Technically it is a child nursing from a breast but technically rape is normally a penis entering a vagina.) It's akin to the women who were forced to have sex...that's not making love or having sex...that's rape.

Forcing a women to enter a relationship because of fear, lack of options, or because she sees it as her ONLY way to survive is not a choice...it's a form of rape. Rape of her dignity, sense of self, children, etc.

As a rape victim who didn't fight back does that mean I was making love or having sex? No. It was still rape. I saw not fighting as my only way to survive & because I was afraid. What happened to all the men, women & children who were forced into slavery is horrible & what they were forced to do should not be compared to the choices women make today about caring for their children.

So many women for some reason other than cosmetic (like rape, sexual abuse, medications, or disease) can not nurse their children but know breastmilk is safer than formula. How lucky we are to have a society of women/friends who would step in & nourish that child. I have nursed for two other friends & as I await the birth of my 3rd child I am overjoyed at a friends announcment of her pregnancy. Now I know there will be someone to nurse my child should the need arise & I am unable to for some reason.

Please, don't look down on wet nursing because of the distorted & wicked views of men & women of the past. Wet nursing is an act of love for a helpless infant. What happened in the south was an act of survival/self-preservation for a women who had no other options. And those who forced women into that situation were nothing but horrible men & women who will receive their due.

And, the funny was because the baby who sticks his hand down your shirt is only looking for comfort &/or a full belly...and they know how to get it. No more disgust than the baby who opens his mouth wide & gives little smacks of his lips when someone pulls out a bottle.

On a side note please, give wet nursing or cross nursing another chance. Without it my child who still has horrible allergies to dairy, soy, corn (major formula ingredient) & almost all preservatives would not be alive.

Honey
At July 10, 2007 6:00 PM, Gem said...: Is it only black women who are wet-nursing, or is the practice becoming more common as all women see the benefits of nursing for babies when their mother can't? Breastmilk banks are becoming more common, and I'm sure no one knows what the ethnic background of the donor is. I (a white woman) would gladly wet-nurse if it would help a baby out who wouldn't be nursed otherwise. I don't think it's fair (but then again I am not the demographic being targeted here) to picture black women willing to help out a woman -- and baby -- in need as somehow discounting the horrific past of black wet-nurses. Forced wet-nursing is terribly, terribly wrong. Voluntary wet-nursing, regardless of race, is a beautiful thing. I would agree that it is neither hip nor funny, however, to refer to the wet-nurse as a mammy. That is just tasteless.
At October 9, 2007 11:30 PM, Elizabeth F. said...: I agree with Honey and Gem. Just go ahead and ditto everything Gem said. I think wet nursing can be a beautiful thing. I have donated milk through a milk bank and I have nursed my nephew on occassion while my SIL was away.

I think the major difference here is that this mother is choosing to nurse for money and not being forced to. And I have heard of wet-nursing and/or selling ones breastmilk to another family on many occassions in the white community. I think more moms are doing this due to the fact that there is greater awareness being brought to the benefits of breastmilk and not a race issue at all.
At October 26, 2007 7:44 AM, Anonymous said...: Black women used to be forced into sexual relations with White men during slavery. Now, some Black women choose to enter relationships with White men--by the rationale of the post, these relationships should not exist because of what happened during slavery.

Yes, we should be aware of the past, and not forget it, but we should not let it dictate our actions. The wet nurse in the article is paid, can quit at any time, and her children are not suffering from lack of her breast milk.

She is living her life, and it is doubtful that there will be a rash of Black women starting to wet nurse White children. Anything that promotes breastfeeding at this point has to be beneficial, doesn't it?