Baby's milk: a source of trust between mothers and nurses

The task of providing infants adequate amounts of nutritious milk, in spite of mothers' ability to produce breast milk, has never been easy. In America cow's milk became the food of choice when mothers ceased to breast-feed their infants. In the mid-1800s advances in bacteriology and chemistry led to a beginning understanding of the role of microbes in food and the development of commercial proprietary formulas. Many mothers discontinued breast-feeding at an early age and relied on these products for their children. With the growth of cities, dairy farms were pushed many miles from the consumers of milk. The distance the new uncooled milk had to be transported, especially during the hot summer months, increased the chances of milk-borne diseases infecting infants. To combat the high rates of infant gastroenteritis and death, welfare reformers and health professionals banded together to improve the milk supply through pasteurization, certification, and safe distribution; and to educate the public, especially mothers, on ways to feed and keep their infants healthy. Through their close contact with mothers in their homes, nurses taught these women how to prepare, store, and feed infants' milk. When their babies survived the summer, mothers developed a sense of trust in the nurse and the things she taught about ways to protect their infants and the entire family's health.