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A wet nurse is a woman who nurses a baby not her own. A wet nurse may be employed if the birth mother of a baby is unable to breast feed her baby for a variety of reasons. Some reasons may include use of certain drugs (prescription or illegal), illness or inoperative breasts. Also members of higher classes would have their children wet-nursed.
Through the recent widespread availability of infant formula, wet nurses are not very common or needed in developed countries.
Though not widely known in developed countries, a woman who has never been pregnant may produce milk. Through frequent stimulation of the areolae and nipples, a woman may begin lactating and, therefore, be able to nurse. The use of a wet nurse is still a common practice in many developing countries.
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