Salaried breastfeeding in sixteenth century: wet nurses in the Royal Hospital in Guadix

Abstract

Opposite of the generalized idea about the failure of the wet nurses who worked for/in hospitals —very common in the studies of the eighteenth century—, an unexpected discovery considered relevant because of the shortage of studies about women in sixteenth century in the north of the kingdom of Granada, let us consider the activity of the wet nurses as a job, which was ruled and also a source of funds for them and their families.

Women had the leading role in the whole productive process and in the labour structure, appearing with their own name in the checking, regardless of the marital status. In that way, in an only eight years interval, we have known the identity of more than a hundred women that, in Guadix and in this area, have been employed for an institution that recognises their value and this labour success will have social and economical consequences in the community.

In the other hand, we have not found gender differences in newborn abandon, adoption, or survival of children, as is revealed in other studies.