By Meghan Montgomery
Athens NEWS Campus Reporter
Monday, May 7th, 2007
A professor from the Ohio University College of
Osteopathic Medicine offered her expertise about
the risks of outsourced breastfeeding on NBC's
"Today" show last month.
"When the mother is not breastfeeding the baby
but a paid wet nurse is, we are talking about a
really perilous situation here," said Dr.
Jacqueline Wolf, associate professor of social
medicine at OU-COM.
Outsourcing breastfeeding includes wet nursing
and cross nursing. Time magazine's issue two
weeks ago covered this hot topic, which
according to Wolf started a buzz and drove the
"Today" show's April 26 program. According to
Wolf, the issue of outsource breastfeeding
resurfaced in the media because many speculate
that it is making a comeback. Wolf said she
supports cross nursing, but is alarmed by the
reported rise in wet nursing.
"I am absolutely not in favor of paid wet
nursing at all," said Wolf. She said "wet
nursing" is the term traditionally used to
describe a woman breastfeeding a baby who is not
her own. In today's terminology, she added, wet
nursing also implies that the woman is paid.
Wolf is concerned about paid wet nursing for
several reasons. "I worry about exploitation of
poor women in paid wet nursing," said Wolf. "I
worry about the wet nurse's own baby. Where is
that baby? Is that baby getting enough human
milk? And is that baby being taken care of?"
According to Wolf, the history of wet nursing is
a "terrible" one. Wet nurses in the past were
harshly abused by families because mothers would
get very jealous of wet nurses, said Wolf.
Additionally, Wolf said that wet nurses in the
past were not allowed to bring their own babies
to work with them, and therefore the death rate
of wet nurse babies about 100 years ago was 90
percent.
"Essentially, a poor baby died so a wealthy baby
could live," said Wolf. "The fact that this is
becoming an institution again concerns me very
much, and I think that the same abuses can
certainly happen today that happened a hundred
years ago."
In contrast to her opinions about wet nursing,
Wolf said she supports cross nursing. According
to Wolf, the term "cross nursing" is relatively
new, but it's an old practice. Cross nursing is
unpaid, informal and done between very close
women on few occasions. "Maybe it's a friend or
a relative, and they both happen to be
lactating," explained Wolf. "If they happen to
be taking care of each other's babies, and the
baby is upset, the other mother might just say
'Oh well, go ahead and breast feed him if he's
upset,' or 'If he won't take a bottle, it's OK
if you breastfeed him.'"
Although Wolf said it's great when women help
each other out by cross nursing, she cited one
concern: "The warning I have is - if women are
going to nurse each other's babies, then you
better know the woman and know about her health
as closely as you would know about the health of
a sexual partner," said Wolf. Viruses such as
HIV and Hepatitis A can be transmitted in breast
milk, she added.
If risks are involved, then why is outsourcing
breastfeeding supposedly on the rise? Wolf
attributed this supposed increase to several
factors, such as the newly established
"wet-nurse agencies" on the West coast. "The
discovery of the increase in wet nursing is
probably because the wet-nurse agencies are
popping up. Otherwise I can't image any other
evidence," said Wolf.
She said women who want to hire a wet nurse can
go to this agency, where the minimum rate for a
wet nurse is $1,000 per week. Therefore, these
agencies are only affordable to wealthy women,
said Wolf.
On the other hand, Wolf said the supposed rise
in cross nursing has occurred for other reasons.
"The cross nursing I think is more interesting,"
said Wolf. "I think it is something that has
come to light only because women are talking
about it, and frankly I think it has always gone
on."
Wolf added that women might be helping each
other out more through cross nursing because of
their busy work schedules. According to Wolf,
more than half of the mothers with babies under
the age of 1 are full-time workers. "If you want
to breastfeed your baby and you are a full-time
worker, then it makes total sense to me that
women are getting friends and relatives to help
out in a pinch if necessary," she said.
According to Wolf, mothers' increased awareness
about recommendations from the American Academy
of Pediatrics is probably why many women try to
avoid formula altogether, and instead ask close
friends and family members for help. "Women
should be breastfeeding their own babies, but I
think it is really cool that women are helping
each other out in a pinch." |
