We breastfeed each other's children: Sisters claim that wet-nursing is a natural part of motherhood and sisterhood



Bunty Rowe, 26, and Kyle Aldridge, 30, have cross-fed for four years

They have seven children between them

Say that it is historically what women have always done

Claim it has brought their families closer



Want to start charity for women who need to nipple share due to emergency

The Kardashian sisters love to keep things in the family, and recently mother-of-two Kourtney admitted that she would be happy to be breastfeed sister Kim's baby daughter.

Pregnant Kim isn't convinced by the idea, calling it 'disgusting', but the idea of wet nursing is actually an age-old parenting method that dates back to the ancient Greeks.



Sisters Bunty Rowe and Kyle Aldridge have seven children between them and often breastfeed their neices and nephews. They are both members of the pro-breastfeeding group Lactivist and say that cross-feeding is natural and convenient and has even brought their children closer together.

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Sisters Bunty Rowe and Kyle Aldridge have practised 'nipple sharing' for over four years

26-year-old Bunty (l) says that cross-feeding gives her 'emotional comfort' and 30-year-old Kyle (r) has started a Facebook group for women who need to wet-nurse because of illness or emergency



On This Morning today the two women from Cam in Gloucs explained why 'nipple sharing' works for them.



Bunty, 26, who has two daughters Mabel, four, and Ede, two, said: 'We enjoy breastfeeding, at the end of the day its all about choice. It's a convenience thing as well as emotionally comforting. I didn't want to give my children formula, that's just a choice I made, so it gave me great emotional comfort to know that if my sister was looking after my daughter she could feed her.'

Her sister Kyle, 30, who has five children, explained: 'There was never any big conversation about it it happened naturally when my sister went out one day and was nervous [about leaving her daughter] and I said if she cries shall I feed her?'

'How often and how much has varied over time. It's all about meeting the needs of the children.'

The two women have been breastfeeding each others children for the past four years. Kyle, a full-time mother to Jai, 13, Lottie, 11, Levi, seven, Judah, four, and Elijah, two , will sometimes breastfeed friends' children too.

She has started a wet nurse Facebook group in the UK to connect mothers who need breast milk due to an emergency or illness



The women appeared on This Morning to defend their lifestyle on Thursday

She said: 'Breastfeeding is only a small part of your parenting ethos. Infant feeding is a bonding process but it's a small part of a big picture.

In a recent interview with The Sun student midwife Bunty said: 'We’re like one family unit really,'

Kyle, who is in the process of becoming a registered childminder, added:



'It’s natural. I see breastfeeding my baby and my sister’s baby as part of motherhood — and sisterhood.



'If Kim and Kourtney do decide to breastfeed each others babies, they won’t be the first and they definitely won’t be the last.'

For for more information visit the This Morning website

HOW SMALLPOX KILLED THE WET-NURSE

When a woman breast-feeds someone else’s baby it is called ’wet-nursing’. It was an ancient occupation mentioned in many early medical texts, including those by Aristotle and Ibn Sina. Wet nurses might act as foster parents for motherless babies or those whose mother was simply ill or not able to produce enough milk.



Wet-nursing in Europe increased steadily from the 1000s onwards as urbanisation increased. Country women, usually from farming families, were preferred to town women. Foundling hospitals, which took in abandoned babies, became an increasing source of income for wet nurses. The traditional wet nurse was expected to have a strong body, good milk and to be sympathetic, clean and tidy, active and of good character. She would wet-nurse the infant until it was weaned from breast milk, and might then remain long enough to become the child's nanny. The wet nurse was sometimes considered a member of the family.



Country areas were not immune to plague or to smallpox, and epidemic diseases gradually increased the risks of wet-nursing. By the 1800s British doctors were strongly opposed to wet-nursing on moral and scientific grounds. The practice was still common in France, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Russia but was opposed by campaigns encouraging women to breastfeed their own children. By the 1940s ‘wet-nursing’ normally meant expressing milk using breast pumps, which went into ‘milk banks’ for premature or sickly babies.



Wet-nursing is still used in some communities where older traditions are still in place, but is no longer widely practised. - www.sciencemuseum.org.uk







