Genealogy Chat

Hi All,
I have just found on my uncle's census record for 1911 he was 1 day old and had a "Monthly Nurse" staying in the house.
Please can anyone tell me if a Monthly Nurse would have acted as midwife and delivered the child, or were they simply brought in as help after the birth for month or so, perhaps if the birth had been difficult?

Regards,
Mayfield

from wikipedia
A Monthly Nurse was a woman who, in 18th and 19th century England, looked after a mother, and her baby also, for the first few weeks after birth.

Mayfield, it often pays to google search this type of query. Looking for "monthly nurse" there is plenty of info, such as:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monthly_Nurse

Jan

Thanks folks,
Seems it was all a bit hit or miss then, some had midwife qualifications others just did the part of the course, left and set themselves up as nurses!

Also looks as if it was used as another term for a wet nurse.

Best wishes,
Mayfield.

Monthly Nurse An attending woman during the first month after childbirth. Also known as 'Confinement Nurse'. May also have the initials S.M.S. (Subsidiary Medical Services. i.e. not a doctor, but trained in some way)


http://rmhh.co.uk/occup/m.html

My 4x grt grandmother was a monthy nurse on the 1871 and 1881 census and she was in her 50,s and 60,s . No way was she a wet nurse

Hi Amokavid,
Yes as you say true wet nurse is something different. The point the website I found made was that it was sometimes used as either a "polite" name for a function that perhaps was not discussed in some circles, or as you say the mother could not or would not feed and didn't want others to know for whatever reason. Knowing the rather straight laced times it seems quite plausible.

Regards,
Mayfield