Before the advent of artificial formula in the 1860s, women had
limited choices in how they chose to feed their infants. These
choices included “dry nursing” which meant feeding an infant the
milk from cows, goats, mares, and donkeys with a variety of
utensils ranging from spoons, cups, and make-shift bottles.
Those were wealthy employed a lactating woman to feed a baby
until the child was weaned. Although wet nursing, or the act of
a lactating mother feeding an infant not directly hers, was
almost a necessity for infants whose mothers could not provide
nutrition themselves either due from death or sickness of the
mother, there were religious and social consequences families
who chose this method of infant nutrition. In colonial America,
religion dictated that women who hired wet nurses were in
disobedience with God because they were essentially neglecting
their children in favor for increased freedom. These religious
undertones carried through to the nineteenth century as wet
nursing became viewed as a selfi