Lactancia materna en la literatura del siglo XIX. Faustina Sáez de Melga

Abstract

Maternal breastfeeding has been considered in all times as an early and essential link between mother and child. Wetnurses are, in many cases, a substitute of mothers who cared more about their social life than about their duties with their baby. Besides, this writer stresses that this relationship may put the baby's life at risk and may be the cause of acquisition of vices and diseases. To avoid the negative consequences of the detachment from mothers, Faustina Sáez de Melgar (Villamanrique de Tajo 1834 -1985) underlines this initial bound, as many other female authors in the XIX century did too, in her journalistic articles as well as in her novels where the role of mother is associated to educating their children personally. Maternal breastfeeding, as she states in so many quotations in her articles and novels, is one of her concerns in her literary production.