Monthly Nurse

[lindagene]

Got it!!!!
a monthly nurse was a nurse employed by those able to afford it, to attend for a month, a lady who had just given birth.
Hope that helps, I am sure that I have seen a couple of questions about this somewhere on Rootschat.
Lindy

[Chris in 1066Land]

Hi Lindy

Yes, you have

They have all come back with the same answer though, as the mother was supposed to stay in bed for a month after giving birth

Still its good to have it confirmed once again from an independent source

Chris in 1066Land

[English Jen]

A lot different from the few hours or overnight that they have now!!!

[Catswhiskers]

This has come up on another board, but the term monthly nurse  was also used as a euphemism for wetnurse particularly towards the end of the 19th Century when people were getting a bit sqeamish about things, and bottle feeding was making advances through the introduction of condensed milk. Wet-nurses wee employed because the baby food made was oftrn of inferior quality rgickebedwith cornflour, and in come gistricts the water supply was not very good. There is a good account of the practice in the novel 'Esther Waters'  by George Moore in 1894 (free ebook from Gutenberg project)

[rogerofgoostrey]

Hi all

Can someone please explain what a wet nurse did?

I have an elderly female relative whose occupation was described in the 1901 census as a monthly sick nurse.  What would her function have been?  Incidentally in 1881 her occupation was given as a washer woman.

Roger

[Catswhiskers]

Oh dear what have I started.
A wet nurse fed babies whose mothers could or would not feed them themselves.  They were usually lodged in the household  so they could be kept an eye on.

[Catswhiskers]

I garbled the last  but one message and posted it by mistake The milk was thickened with cornflour is what I meant to say