A wet nurse is a woman who breast feeds a baby that is not her own. Reasons for use A wet nurse may be employed if the mother of a baby is unable to breast-feed her infant for reasons such as: · drug use (prescription or illegal) · illness · death · breast cancer · insufficient production of breast milk (though see below). · unwillingness Wet nurses have also been required following multiple births where the mother feels incapable of adequately nursing all of the children herself. Some wet nurses also serve as a midwife during childbirth. Eliciting milk A woman can only serve as a wet nurse when she is lactating. It is often thought that this means the wet nurse must have recently given birth to a child of her own. This may be the case, but not necessarily, since regular suckling on a woman's breast can elicit the production of milk by