For most mums, the idea of someone else breastfeeding their baby is unthinkable. But, mum Sarah Hastings has admitted to using her nanny as a wet nurse and sees this so-called ‘extreme breastfeeding’ practice as completely natural.
Wanting to get back to work, Sarah, 46, was desperate to persuade her then 6 month old baby daughter Zoe to use the bottle instead of being breastfed, but little Zoe refused. Her nanny Mary stepped in, providing Sarah with a rather strange solution – wet nursing.
“With this solution it meant I could get back to work with much less worry and guilt,” said Sarah, a professional singer, reports the Daily Mail.
“People are astonished when I tell them my childminder also breastfed Zoe – but why is it considered so very odd? In previous centuries, wet nursing was very common indeed, especially among the upper classes,” Sarah added.
But what about that special bond between mum and child? Many mums would be horrified to find that bond being intruded on, but Sarah admitted to not feeling offended at all as she discussed the moment she walked in a room and saw another woman breastfeed Zoe for the first time. “I wasn’t upset, just stunned because I had not thought about this at all. Then I smiled – it was, to my mind, the perfect solution,” said Sarah.
While Sarah may choose to have a wet nurse, in July, a new mum breastfed a newborn before being told that the baby wasn’t hers. The shocking incident of two newborn babies being switched in hospital happened in Australia. Doctors had to run tests on both babies and their mums to make sure they didn’t contract any infections from the breast milk and mix-up.
There are a few infections that can be passed through breast milk. While babies are safe from common illnesses such as colds, flu and even mastitis (an infection in the breast), babies can be at risk of having HIV, contagious tuberculosis, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, herpes simplex, chicken pox and lyme disease transmitted (breastfeeding becomes safer after a mum receives enough treatment for some of these infections).
What do you think of wet nursing? Would you do it?
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