Helena Helme
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Research Mentor(s): Victoria Langland
Co-Presenter: Nelson, Emily
Research Mentor School/College/Department: History/Romance Languages and Literatures / LSA
Presentation Date: April 20
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: Session 1 – 10am – 10:50am
Room: League Ballroom
Authors:
Presenter: 86
Abstract
When looking at the title of this project, it can be very easy to think that there is only one history when talking about the history of breastfeeding in Brazil. However, this project starts with the assumption that different women had different histories of breastfeeding, depending on their social position, and it asks what scholars can learn about both breastfeeding itself and Brazilian society by examining these experiences. The research we’ve been undertaking has consisted of combing through hundreds and hundreds of medical journals and newspapers from the Biblioteca Nacional to locate, read, transcribe and translate classified advertisements of women wanting to work as a wet nurse or employers wanting to hire a wet nurse. As we do so we have been asking ourselves, what does one learn about by looking at these ads? They are usually only about 30 words long, and they can often seem repetitive. But with careful attention to details, this project shows that they reveal a plethora of information about the reality of wet nursing, or in other words, this “transaction of women’s bodiesâ€. Brazilian society communicated a lot through these 30-word ads. This may not be clear when you read just one, but when we put years of them together and look for patterns, we are revealing information about race, infant and maternal health, and of course breastfeeding. The ads often mention the race of the wet nurse in explicit or implicit ways, such as by advertising her foreignness as an appealing aspect for those seeking a wet nurse. Some literature has argued that non-white wet nurses were seen as being more valuable than white nurses; their milk was understood as more nutritious and as providing unique health benefits for the child. But the classified ads don’t reflect this idea and instead reveal a preference for white wet nurses. This speaks to the way Brazilian society at the time understood that breast milk was the best option for infant nutrition, but socioeconomic status and race mattered in deciding whose breast milk was deemed “the bestâ€. Other factors listed in the ads included how long ago the wet nurse gave birth (described as “how old†her milk was or by mentioning her child’s age), and requirements that she not bring her own child along with her. Additionally, the ads show that wet nurses tried to verify their health status through an “atestado medicoâ€; a medical declaration of health that essentially showed they had been cleared to wet nurse others. Drawing out this information from these ads allows us to dig deeper into this perspective of what breastfeeding was like at the time. It also allows us to understand how Brazilian ideas about wet nursing and the related phenomenon of human milk banking changed over time.
Public Health
