奶妈是哺乳期妇女，母乳喂养不属于她自己的孩子。曾经是一个高度组织化和高薪的职业，到1900年，湿护士几乎消失了。在西方社会发明婴儿配方奶粉和喂奶瓶使湿护理几乎过时之前，贵族妇女通常雇用湿护士，因为母乳喂养被认为是不合时宜的。商人，医生和律师的妻子也更愿意雇用一名护士而不是母乳喂养，因为这比雇用帮助经营丈夫的业务或管理家庭便宜。对于下层阶级的贫困女性来说，湿护理是一种常见的职业选择。在许多情况下，湿护士需要注册并接受体检。在工业革命期间，低收入家庭使用湿护士，因为越来越多的女性开始工作并且无法进行母乳喂养。农村贫困农民妇女开始扮演湿护士的角色。虽然动物奶是替代人乳的最常见来源，但它在营养方面不如母乳。科学的进步使研究人员能够分析人乳，并尝试创造和改进非人类牛奶，使其更接近人乳。 1865年，化学家Justus von Liebig为婴儿食品提供专利，该食品由牛奶，小麦和麦芽粉以及碳酸氢钾组成。婴儿配方奶粉的引入，动物奶的更大可用性以及奶瓶的发展减少了对整个19世纪后半期和20世纪的湿护士的需求。在配方的兴起和湿护理的衰落之后，曾经普遍服务在西方大部分地区几乎成了禁忌。但由于母乳喂养再次成为一种越来越容易接受的做法，婴儿的母亲再一次感受到压力。然而，全国各地的产假差别不均，母乳喂养的真正困难意味着一些女性可能会从恢复湿润护理的古老传统中受益。正如新共和国在2014年报告的那样，分担护理责任 – 无论是通过正式雇用一名护士还是通过在朋友之间找出非正式安排 – 都希望能够减轻母亲的生活负担而不影响他们的婴儿喂养。这种做法仍然存在争议。甚至母乳喂养倡导组织La Leche League也在2007年劝阻这种做法。据发言人Anna Burbidge说：“在医学和心理方面都有很强烈的保留意见。存在潜在危害。最大的风险是感染风险从母亲传给孩子。母乳是一种由你的身体专门为你的宝宝设计的活体物质，而不是别人的。“尽管存在这些风险，但在这个共享和备用房共享的时代，“牛奶共享”是一些家庭正在尝试的现象，这并不奇怪。 Facebook集团和牛奶分享网站已经出现，根据2016年Netmums.com的报道，这种做法正在上升。他们在2016年进行的一项非正式民意调查发现，每25名女性中就有一名女性分享了自己的牛奶，5％的家庭使用牛奶来自牛奶银行。随着禁忌慢慢升起，这种古老的做法可能会真正卷土重来。
The nurse is a lactating woman and breastfeeding is not her own child. It used to be a highly organized and highly paid profession, and by 1900, the wet nurse had almost disappeared. Before Western society invented infant formula and feeding bottles to make wet care almost obsolete, aristocratic women usually hire wet nurses because breastfeeding is considered out of date. Merchants, doctors, and lawyers’ wives are also more willing to hire a nurse than breastfeeding because it is cheaper than hiring a business that helps run a husband or manage a family. For poor women in the lower classes, wet care is a common career choice. In many cases, wet nurses need to register and undergo a medical examination. During the Industrial Revolution, low-income families used wet nurses as more and more women started working and were unable to breastfeed. Rural poor peasant women began to play the role of wet nurses. Although animal milk is the most common source of alternatives to human milk, it is less nutritious than breast milk. Advances in science have enabled researchers to analyze human milk and try to create and improve non-human milk to bring it closer to human milk. In 1865, the chemist Justus von Liebig patented baby food consisting of milk, wheat and malt powder and potassium bicarbonate. The introduction of infant formula, greater availability of animal milk, and bottle development have reduced the need for wet nurses throughout the second half of the 19th century and the 20th century. After the rise of formula and the decline of wet care, once universal service was almost taboo in most parts of the West. But as breastfeeding is once again becoming an increasingly acceptable practice, the mother of the baby feels pressure again. However, maternity leave varies across the country, and the real difficulty of breastfeeding means that some women may benefit from the ancient tradition of restoring wet care. As the New Republic reported in 2014, sharing care responsibilities – whether by formalizing a nurse or by finding informal arrangements between friends – hopes to reduce the mother’s burden of life without affecting their infant feeding. This practice is still controversial. Even the breastfeeding advocacy organization La Leche League also discouraged this practice in 2007. According to spokesperson Anna Burbidge: “There are strong reservations in both medical and psychological aspects. There is a potential hazard. The biggest risk is that the risk of infection is transmitted from the mother to the child. Breast milk is a kind of baby specially designed for your baby. Designed for living matter, not for others. “Despite these risks, it is not surprising that “milk sharing” is a phenomenon that some families are trying to do in this era of shared and shared housing sharing. The Facebook Group and the Milk Sharing website have emerged, and according to the 2016 Netmums.com report, this practice is on the rise. An informal poll conducted in 2016 found that one in every 25 women shared their milk and 5% of the family used milk from the milk bank. As the taboos rise slowly, this ancient practice may really come back.