Nursing mothers and nursing mothers are occupations left over from feudal society, and even now there are still people in some rural areas of China who are engaged in this kind of work. This old social custom was once popular in wealthy families, so what is the concept of the nursing mother asked by the question, and why does the mother not raise it herself? Let's answer them one by one.
In the past, this kind of profession mostly appeared in the rich and powerful families, just like the rich families have many servants, the wet nurse can also be seen as a kind of servant, but it is more special.
So who is suitable to be a wet nurse?
In ancient times, especially in the folk nursing mother, it was actually a relatively low-status profession, so it was often poor women who used their own milk to feed other people's children in exchange for remuneration. Some nurses can't even feed their own children, so the women who are nurses are more or less forced to live.
Of course, this is in the folk, and when the profession of a wet nurse goes to the palace, it is another situation.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the imperial palace set up a "milk house" to feed the emperor's relatives and relatives. Such a nursing mother is much more noble than the folk, and basically has no worries about food and clothing for a lifetime. However, when going to the palace to be a nursing lady for the royal children, not everyone can go, and when it comes to selecting candidates for the palace, the official still has certain requirements. Basically, it is a woman in her seventeens, eighties and twenties who have just given birth to a child and have plenty of milk. If the prince who is fed will later sit on the throne, there are not a few nurses who will be crowned. For example, the Eastern Han Emperor's wet nurse Wang Shi, Tang Zhongzong's wet nurse Yu Shi, Ming XiZong's wet mother Ke clan, etc., some people with great power can even interfere in the affairs of the dynasty.
So why doesn't a child's birth mother feed and care for her own child? This reason is still quite complicated, probably the following situations.
First, the medical conditions in ancient times were limited, and giving birth to children was actually a very dangerous process, many children were born but the mother died of difficult childbirth. Then if these children want to grow up healthy and healthy, the family must ask the nurse to feed them. Therefore, in addition to the rich and noble families, there are also ordinary families who hire wet nurses, often between neighbors, there is no class difference.
Second, in ancient times, the families of the rich and the noble pursued the prosperity of the people, especially in the imperial palace, and there were a lot of children in the family of a relative of the emperor and the state. Milk from birth mothers may simply not be enough, especially for mothers with multiple births. So except for some mothers who are not in good health and have less milk. There are also many mothers who can't feed at all, and at this time, they must ask the nurse to supplement the milk source.
Third, the birth mother does not want to bring her own children, this situation mostly occurs in the palace, the more prominent the ten fingers do not touch the Yang Chunshui dignitaries. For the hard work of taking children, the less interested they are, after birth, they are thrown to the nursing mother, and they can do whatever they want, so there are many children who follow the nursing mother for three or four years, and the feelings are good.
In recent years, China's milk powder trust crisis has been quite serious, and many families have been afraid to give their children to drink domestic milk powder. This situation also makes the special profession of the long-dormant nursing mother show signs of warming, and even once became a profession pursued by people.
Related services such as "nursing mother health certification" and "milk quality testing" have also begun to appear on the stage, which is really laughable. However, there is indeed such a demand in our country, especially after the population aging is serious, after the country opens up the two-child policy, we may have heard of some people hiring nursing mothers to feed their children around you and me. It is reported that in Guangdong, the monthly salary of a wet nurse is about 7,000, and the high quality of milk can even earn 20,000 a month. But after all, this is not a long-term job, and no one can be a nurse for a lifetime.
So this profession is very mobile, but I still recommend that if there are no special circumstances, it is better to bring your own children.