Childbirth In The Antebellum South

The culture, history, economy, and politics of the Southern states have been studied extensively. Yet, one element of life in the South has received much less attention: women 's experiences during childbirth (Simon, Richard M. "Women 's Birth Experiences and Evaluations: A View from the American South" no. 1, 2016, pp.1-38). Childbirth plays a substantial role in enslaved woman 's lives positively and negatively. During slavery, enslaved poor women who were wet-nurses were forced to give up their milk just to feed another women’s child. Feeding another woman 's child with one 's own milk constituted a form of labor, but it was work that could only be undertaken by lactating women who had borne their own children (West, E. and Knight, R. "Mother 's Milk: Slavery, Wet-Nursing and Black and White Women in the Antebellum South" no. 37, 2017, pp.

37-68). Moreover, the role of an enslaved wet nurse was to put another women 's child before their own. Holding a white child to their breast in order to provide sustenance through her own milk, therefore holds much resonance for historians interested in gender, slavery and relationships between black and white women in the Antebellum South. In regards to this, white women would sometimes wet-nurse enslaved infants through a “suck bottle”(West, E. and Knight, R. "Mothers Milk: Slavery, Wet-Nursing and Black and White Women in the Antebellum South" no. 37, 2017, pp. 37-68). Works Progress Administration (WPA) respondent Susan Forrest believed her mother was raised on a “suck bottle” (West, E. And Knight, R. “Mothers Milk: Slavery, Wet-Nursing and Black and White Women in the Antebellum South” no. 40, 2017, pp. 37-68) which was common especially for Southern enslaved