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Royal Gazette and New Brunswick Advertiser
Fredericton, New Brunswick
13 March 1787, p. 3
University of New Brunswick Archives & Special Collections.
Wet nurses breastfed babies for women who had either died, were ill, were unable to lactate, or had both the income and inclination to hire someone to nurse their infants. While most women in colonial America relied upon their sisters, aunts, or cousins to suckle their children if they were unable, sometimes commercial wet nurses had to be hired. Families found these women through advertisements in the newspaper. The woman advertising in the Royal Gazette may have fallen upon hard economic times because she is also looking for work as a housekeeper.
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