Send message to Author

Paper short abstract:

The aim of this paper is to question the general assumption that fragmented motherhood,mostly apparent in the case of surrogate mothers, is new in history. Wet-nurses, women whose jobs was to breasfeed babies not their own already contributed in the past, as even today, to the debate.

Paper long abstract:

New Technologies of Reproduction have contributed to the fragmentation of motherhood, with surrogate mothers, for example, now maternity can be divisible into genetic, gestational and social. Having as a reference the ethnographic work about domestic wet-nurses in XIX/XX Spain. Peasant women that emigrated to different cities as Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla in order to work as domestic wet-nurses among the wealthiest groups of the society: aristocracy, burgeoise and Royalty, and based on a theory of reproduction that considered milk as menstrual blood that dissapeared during nine months and came back converted into milk through the process of breastfeeding (it means that milk besides being considered as food because of our condition as mammals, is an essential symbol of the reproductive process), the aim of this paper is to try to question the general statement that the social and biological aspects of motherhood have historically resided in one person until the advances in Assisted Reproduction. Wet-nurses, denominated in some situations: surrogate mothers", "mercenary mothers" or even ,"half mothers" already contributed in the past, as in presen times, to a social and cultural debate. This labor practice of breasfeeding others' babies already broke the cultural ideal of breasfeeding and maternity.