Before Galen there was Soranus of Ephesus, a second century physician, who influenced western medicine throughout the next two millennia. He worked within a humoral framework: during pregnancy, menstrual blood is transformed into breastmilk in the breasts and transmitted back to the fetus until birth, when lactation begins.

Awful Advice

In Gynecologie he advised: 

That a wetnurse is always necessary because mother’s milk is unfit for at least twenty days, it’s too raw and thick, and mum is wrecked after childbirth:

“It is absurd to prescribe the maternal milk until the body enjoys stable health”.

Besides, he says, breastfeeding prematurely ages women and makes their boobs saggy.

No one should feed baby for at least two days, but if necessary only boiled honey followed with some hydromel (4-7% abv honey wine). FTR: Even pasteurized honey can give baby botulism.

Other Awful Tips:

The wetnurse shouldn’t take baths because it makes breastmilk too watery.

Milk can spoil in the breast if it gets too hot or is too old.

Feeding on demand will led to diseases like epilepsy.

If baby must nurse in the night, the wetnurse needs to walk around get breasts moving first, literally “shake before use” as contents may have settled.

Decent Advice

Soranus’s decent breastfeeding advice includes concepts like demand equaling supply, that is, if you have low supply, put baby to the breast more frequently to produce more breastmilk:

“Suckling should also be more frequent, for in response to this sensation more nutriment is provided.”

But on no account allow the wetnurse to try any trendy hacks like vomiting, aromatic potions, “milk pills,” or eating or applying the ashes of burnt bats or owls. He discourages bed-sharing but encourages room sharing to facilitate night time feeding:

“the cradle should stand alongside the bed, or if she wants to have the newborn still nearer, the trough [crib] should be placed upon the bed.”

Surprisingly (because this myth lasted for a few more millennia) he debunks sexist misinformation that male babies need the milk from a wet nurse whose had a male baby, after all, male and female twins thrive on the same milk. Or that female babies need to be weaned later than male babies.

As to weaning, he says not to introduce foods before the first tooth comes in and if the baby becomes ill after starting solids, to revert to 100% breastfeeding until they are well again, and to continue supplementing their diet with breast milk until all the teeth come in (18 months – 2 years in modern babies).

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If you would like to read Soranus’s Gynecologie for yourself it’s available on Archive.org.