Wow, i'm glad i didn't have time to do this before i left for my morning gig, 'cause the radio supplied me with something to talk about.
Apparently, a woman's breasts can be stimulated into producing milk. A woman who is adopting a child is doing so in order to feed the child when she gets it. Awkwardly, she has now discovered that her mother in law is also stimulating hers so that she can help.
During the discussion among the DJs and the callers, there was outrage and disgust over the thought of someone other than birth mother's breast being in a child's mouth. Finally, a caller reminded everyone that using wet nurses used to be the norm. The response to that was that that's not the way things are done now.
Which is my point.
As society changes, so do the things that are accepted. Slavery was once a norm, in multiple forms. Thank the universe that changed. i'd love to be able to say that bigotry is no longer a norm, but i do thank the universe that we're getting there.
Wow. i thought i had more to say on this. When it comes to me, i'll add it.
harmony, keith
A few years ago a man was stimulating his breasts so he could nurse his child. I think he was successful. Not a well known fact for sure.
ReplyDeleteYears ago I babysat when my own sons were small and one baby I watched would only shut-up if I nursed it. I never told the mother for fear she would be angry, but I was healthy and nursing my own son, and that was all the baby wanted. Wet nurses are definitely not a norm in our culture now.
Wow. i hadn't heard that, either.
ReplyDeleteWhich is part of the point. People's perceptions, as the practice dwindled, changed from 'that's normal' to 'Ew'.
Our use of nurses/nannies comes from that practice. i wonder if the next move is away from allowing anyone other than a parent to care for a child. i can see it now: papooses at work, lunchtime tradeoffs from one parent to the other.
Not that either of those would be a bad thing.
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