A Social History of Wet Nursing in America

Download or read book A Social History of Wet Nursing in America written by Janet Golden and published by Ohio State University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the colonial period through to the 20th century, this text examines the intersection of medical science, social theory and cultural practices as they shaped relations among wet nurses, physicians and families. It explores how Americans used wet nursing to solve infant feeding problems, shows why wet nursing became controversial as motherhood slowly became medicalized, and elaborates how the development of scientific infant feeding eliminated wet nursing by the beginning of the 20th century. Janet Golden's study contributes to our understanding of the cultural authority of medical science, the role of physicians in shaping child rearing practices, the social construction of motherhood, and the profound dilemmas of class and culture that played out in the private space of the nursery.