The abandoned children and their representation in "La Gazeta de Madrid"

Abstract

The existence of official journals allows States to provide information on legislative and administrative activity. Different studies have used these bulletins to analyze the sociosanitary information of a particular historical moment. Our objective wass to assess the evolution of the references regarding foundlings and their relationship with wet nurses in the Journal “Gazeta de Madrid”, and to stablish their categorization according to the issues that have been covered. We perform the review and content analysis of 130 references published between 1751 and 1926 who met the established inclusion criteria. After reading, transcription, compilation and categorization of gathered information, a process of information’s synthesis is performed. The study allows us to assess the social importance of wet nurses as a standard element in society, also highlighting a negative characterization of this figure, due to the progressive decrement of its offer. The wet nurses will perform as a labour standard figure in the 19th century, appearing as such in the press and also in the legislation which regulates aspects of productive work. Wet nurse becomes, together with children, the society’s weakest link, leading to a discrimination result of the patriarchal conception of society and the fact of being a woman.

Keywords

• Lactancia materna
• Historia de la Enfermería
• Anuncios
• Prensa
• Leche materna
• nodrizas