tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1655932075959811304.post208193502299522510..comments2024-03-27T02:01:33.368-04:00Comments on Inviting History: Wet Nurses and Breastfeeding in the 17th - 18th CenturyAnna Gibsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05396224945159965618noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1655932075959811304.post-71189551411304352112014-11-02T11:25:41.426-05:002014-11-02T11:25:41.426-05:00Wow. The information about Rousseau's children...Wow. The information about Rousseau's children really needs a post of its own... The troubles of practicing what one preaches....<br />Wet nurses are an intriguing topic. Even as early as the 15th century, there was a philosophical/religious tendency which convinced some ladies of high status to breastfeed their own children but on the other hand, Queen Victoria was still shocked when her daughters decided to do so.<br />And of course, wet nurses sometimes stayed on in a royal or noble household long after their primary task had finished (and the same woman might serve to feed several siblings). The best known example of that is probably, as usual, a fictional one: Juliet's nurse from Shakespear's Romeo and Juliet, who helps her charge even against the wishes of her family. <br />In a very peculiar way, wet nursing may be one of the earliest professions from which fairly ordinary women could climb to positions of power...Laurianahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16602295642057814667noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1655932075959811304.post-76931629298570928742014-06-16T23:51:52.513-04:002014-06-16T23:51:52.513-04:00Please feel free to link the post, Madeleine! :)
...Please feel free to link the post, Madeleine! :)<br /><br />Rousseau had at least one child and possibly four (Rousseau says that there were four additional children but there is no record of them to confirm) with one woman. But yes, he admitted that he convinced her to give the children to a foundling hospital. He wrote in his Confessions that he "... trembled at the thought of intrusting them to a family ill brought up, to be still worse educated. The risk of the education of the foundling hospital was much less." The mother of the children was a seamstress and the primary supporter for her her mother and siblings. Perhaps Rousseau knew that he would not settle down to create the domestic life he swore by in his own writings.Anna Gibsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16294617189991777940noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1655932075959811304.post-32922052324404561072014-06-08T16:35:03.443-04:002014-06-08T16:35:03.443-04:00I'm fascinated by 18th Century French history,...I'm fascinated by 18th Century French history, particularly Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution. As a former La Leche League member, I found your post about breastfeeding in the 18th Century especially interesting. Beautiful artwork, too. Thank you. Would you mind if I put a link to it on my blog? <br /><br />Rousseau supported the practice in theory more than he did personally, though, didn't he? Didn't he abandon his own five children at orphanages?ImportanttoMadeleinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04908901338754119909noreply@blogger.com