In the eyes of many modern people, the work content of nursing mothers is nothing more than "breastfeeding their children". In fact, in ancient society, nursing mothers were not just breastfeeding. Strictly speaking, there are some additional special services to be provided.
So why invite a nursing mother? Does your own mother have no milk?
In the past, women had a low status, and mothers were noble with their sons, and they served people in Israel. Like the concubines in the palace, after giving birth, they are eager to win the favor, and they must shape their bodies after giving birth, if they lose their body shape because of the child after giving birth, then naturally they will not be favored by the emperor.
In addition, the prince stayed with his biological mother as soon as he was born, and he was raised by his biological mother, and the relationship between mother and son must be very deep, and the prince's accession to the throne in the future will surely have too much support for the people of the mother's family, which will seriously interfere with the imperial government. In order to prevent the child from being too close to the mother, it will lead to the occurrence of foreign dictatorship. Therefore, as soon as the children of the princes and nobles are born, they are fed by long-cultivated nursing mothers.
Nanny Nanny, isn't it just feeding? In fact, in addition to breastfeeding, the nursing mother's duties will always accompany the prince and take on the additional responsibility of childcare.
Among them, including the prince's clothing, food and living, even the prince's "pain treatment and prevention" are within the scope of their duties, and the prince's words and deeds must also be persuaded, so the responsibility of the nursing mother is heavy, when the prince attends various activities when he is young, the nursing mother needs to follow them, which is equivalent to assuming the responsibility of the mother, and also plays the role of an enlightenment teacher.
They have to do their best to take care of the princes, feed them when they are young, even if they are growing up and these princes are still not weaned, the nursing mother must provide them, such as Puyi, the last emperor of the late Qing Dynasty, who was still not weaned when he was nine years old
However, from the point of view of status, status and class, they belong to the slave class, and after completing the task, they can be completely abandoned by the prince or princess they raise, and even be expelled from the palace, so the status of these nursing mothers is not high.
However, the criteria for the selection of nursing mothers are not simple. After all, the prince and the nursing mother accompany each other day and night, and the formation of outlook on life and values will also be influenced by the nursing mother, who will directly affect the child's attitude to do things in the future and the means to deal with some things.
For nursing mothers, although milk is a noble child, prosperity and wealth are just around the corner. But the royal aristocracy was slightly more demanding on nursing mothers.
You have plenty of milk, not enough, not even if you are older. What are the standards? Choose according to "between 15 and 20 years old, only three months after the birth of the third child". In this way, we can ensure that the nursing mother has enough milk and has a perfect experience in educating children. Good fellow, having three children in your twenties to qualify for this is not enough.
You also have to look dignified and virtuous, in ancient times, people's concept of gods and Buddhas, the dignified posture of the nursing mother will be considered a blessing, and the nursing mother herself is healthy then think that her lotion is of high quality. After all, not only will they often show their faces in front of the royal family, but also the young princes and queens have been in contact with them since childhood, and if they are ugly, it will inevitably have some bad effects.
In addition, there are also certain requirements for the origin of the nursing mother, which stipulates that the nursing mother must be from the three flags of yellow, yellow and white, its coating and the wife of the subordinate's family. These people must be the children of the Eight Flags, and the Manchus have also received a certain degree of sinicization after entering the customs, so there are additional regulations, these people must be proficient in the Manchu language and familiar with the customs of the Manchus. In the later period, due to various reasons, the selection system of nursing mothers was loosened, and many rural women in the Central Plains also played the role of nursing mothers, and the system was gradually abolished, only to ensure the milk supply of the imperial heir.
And for the gender of the royal heir, the choice of nursing mother is also different: "those who give birth to male lactating women, those who give birth to female lactating men", that is, the nursing mother who is the male queen must have just given birth to a daughter, and the nursing mother who is the queen heir must give birth to a boy.
In order to prevent nursing mothers from weaning or interrupting feeding when they are sick, the Qing Dynasty also set up a special reserve bank for nursing mothers to fully ensure the breastfeeding of the imperial heirs.
Since you want to breastfeed, the nursing mother should also strictly control what she eats.
In addition to not being able to see their own biological children, nursing mothers also have strict dietary rules, which belong to the kind that cannot eat one less bite or eat one wrong bite. Among them, ducks, pig's trotters, lungs and other milking ingredients need to be eaten every day. Some people may think that big fish and meat are eaten every day, isn't this a good thing to enjoy happiness? But no matter how delicious things are eaten every day, eaten all the time, always eat the same will not be able to stand it. According to expert research, the elbows eaten by nursing mothers in the Qing Dynasty were actually not allowed to put salt, because they were afraid that eating salty would make the child on fire.
When the nursing mother enters the palace to feed the imperial heir, she will receive compensation of 10 taels of silver every month, which is also used as milk compensation for the nursing mother and child, such income is actually very considerable in ordinary peasant families at that time, so there will be many women who voluntarily enter the palace as nursing mothers in order to make up for the family.
At that time, the annual income of ordinary people in a family was only about five taels, and the nursing mother could get ten taels a month, which was still very rich. During the Jiaqing period, the emperor ordered that in addition to the original Yulu, an additional reward of 10 taels per month would be given.
But many nursing mothers were brought into the palace shortly after giving birth to nurse the prince and princess, and during this period, and even for a few years or even more than ten years after the emperor and princess were weaned, nursing mothers could not go home to see their children, and they did not know anything about the outside information in the deep palace, and they could not know the news of their children.
Some nursing mothers even learn after returning home that their child has died a long time ago.
Although the appointment of nursing mothers can avoid many problems and troubles, from another point of view, it also separates many royal children from their mothers, which will cause the lack of maternal love to a certain extent, as well as their indifference to their biological mothers, which will have a negative impact on both mother and child.
But with the fall of the feudal dynasty, the job of nursing mother also disappeared, after all, there is already a more nutritious substitute for milk powder.