Att amma eller inte amma - ett problem i 1700-talets litteratur och verklighet

Abstract

Starting with the diary written in the 1740's by Christina Hiärne, a member of the Swedish bourgeoisie, problems related to breast feeding and the role of the mother in the mid-18th-century are discussed. Christina Hiärne handed her firstborn over to a wet-nurse. Circumstances in Sweden, treated for example in the thesis of A. Brändström, are compared to the ones described in the wellknown studies by P. Aries and E. Badinter on the situation of children in 18th-century France. Different points of view in catholic and Protestant congregations are focused upon and the position of the church as regards the role of women are compared to populär and ingrained beliefs. Altogether, a complicated pattern of different cultural, classrelated and local traditions appears and the efforts from the point of view of the authorities to decrease infant mortality in Sweden and France are illustrated. In conclusion the populär novel Pamela (1740-42) by Richardson is used to exemplify how family relations were affected when Pamela's husband forbids her to breast-feed their firstborn child.