Podcast Summary

Podcast: Le Cours de l’histoire (France Culture)
Episode: Mondes ruraux, une histoire de femmes : Nourrices, quand les filles des champs veillent sur les enfants des autres
Date: February 24, 2026
Host: Xavier Mauduit
Main Guest: Clyde Plumosil (historienne, CNRS)

Episode Overview

This episode of Le Cours de l’histoire explores the largely invisible yet central historical role of rural women as “nourrices” (wet nurses) in France from the Early Modern period through the early 20th century. It traces the origins, socio-economic dynamics, and lived realities of these women, whose bodies and care underpinned family, social, and economic structures well beyond their own rural communities. Clyde Plumosil, historian and specialist on gender and labor, unpacks the evolution of wet nursing from elite custom to mass rural labor market, the complex interdependence between town and countryside, and the contested imagery and memory of these women.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Definitions and Realities of the “Nourrice”

• The term “nourrice” covers a wide social and practical spectrum—not just a woman who breastfeeds, but one who may care for and educate children, often in her own home or in her employers’ (00:09-03:32).
• There are “nourrices sur lieu” (living in the employer’s house) and “nourrices à emporter” (taking the child to their rural home) (11:46-13:17).

Quote:

"Le mot en réalité couvre de grandes réalités. Qu'il s'agisse d'une nourrice allaitante ou d'une nourrice dite sèche, [...] Sous le second empire, le fils de Napoléon III, Bambin, disposait de deux nourrices. Et pour le docteur Barthès, [...] la nourrice est une bouteille de lait et rien de plus. Mais ça c'est l'avis d'un médecin soucieux d'éliminer la concurrence."
— Xavier Mauduit (00:09)

2. Socio-Economic Origins and Massification

• Wet nursing began as a practice among aristocratic and bourgeois families but became widespread due to increasing abandonment of infants and labor needs of urban women (06:24-08:30).
• By the late 19th century, up to 10% of infants nationally—one third or more in cities—were placed with nourrices (43:03).

Quote:

"La mise en nourrice jusqu'au début du XVIIe siècle, c'est d'abord et avant tout une pratique de classe. Ce sont les familles de l'élite sociale, de l'aristocratie, de la bourgeoisie qui confient leur enfant à une nourrice, souvent une nourrice de campagne. Mais cette pratique, elle va se massifier…" — Clyde Plumosil (06:24)

3. Women’s Bodies and Labor Markets

• The work of wet nurses (and other forms of bodily labor, such as sex work) highlights how women's bodies were directly intertwined with the economics of survival among the rural poor (01:52-03:07).
• The “chain of care”: rural women depend on other family/community members to care for their own children while they care for others’ children (32:42-35:07).

Quote:

"Michel Perrault disait, je la cite, 'Le corps féminin fournit sa propre substance. Nourrissent donnant leurs seins, prostituées livrant leurs vagins, les femmes donnent beaucoup plus que leurs sueurs.'" — Clyde Plumosil, quoting Perrault (01:52)

4. Types of Contracts and Economic Arrangements

• Surlieu nurses (in-home) command higher salaries, more privileges, but stricter discipline; “emportées” receive lower pay for children of working-class families (13:17-15:50).
• Substantial differences exist in prestige, control, and daily life depending on position (14:00).

5. Regions and Rural-Urban Linkages

• Certain regions (Morvan, Normandie, Alsace, Bretagne) are famed for “nourrices”, reflecting both health ideals and economic desperation (17:47-18:52).
• Essentialization of rural women as robust, healthy, and suitable for nourishing urban children.

6. Care Work: Beyond Feeding

• The nourrice provides not just milk, but medical, emotional, and social care; they are early “auxiliaires médicales” (20:54-23:20).
• Their caregiving, though essential, is often rendered invisible or undervalued.

7. Regulation and Surveillance

• The French state and local institutions developed rigorous registration and oversight (certificates, surveillance, medical exams) as the system expanded (25:44-27:53).
• Law Roussel (1874) establishes tight administrative control over all wet-nursed infants, not just orphans.

8. Mortality, Blame, and Social Fantasies

• Infant mortality among wet-nursed children (up to 40%) fueled moral condemnation and suspicion toward nourrices, portraying them as both necessary and potentially dangerous (28:12-30:37).
• Reality: children sent to wet nurses were often already more vulnerable.

Quote:

"Dans cette statistique, ça disait quelque chose de la vulnérabilité des parents abandonneurs et des nourrissons qui se retrouvaient confiés chez ces nourrices."
— Clyde Plumosil (28:12)

9. Daily Life, Mobility, and Markets

• Details on the rural exodus of women seeking wet nursing work and the central role of “meneurs” (go-betweens) who organize placements and physically transport infants (40:14-42:30).
• The circulation of advertisements and negotiation of employment terms reveal agency and strategic behavior by nourrices (44:36-46:39).

10. Stereotypes, Stigma, and Memory

• The “mercenary mother” stereotype: wet nurses seen as ignorant, greedy, or “bad mothers” for leaving their own children (53:52).
• Yet, profound lifelong bonds often formed between nurse and child, remembered in family histories, especially in regions like the Morvan (56:24).

Quote:

"Il y a une mémoire des nourrices qui est très importante, une mémoire familiale souvent très importante. [...] Dans le Morvan, on parle des maisons de lait, par exemple, pour toutes les maisons qui ont été rénovées ou agrandies du fait du départ en nourrice de ces femmes." — Clyde Plumosil (56:24)

Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• Roots of Nourrice Labor
  "Les nourrices étaient des paysannes poussées par la pauvreté." — Luce Mouran (00:47)

• Care Chain
  "C'est une sorte de chaîne du nourrissage [...] on confie toujours à plus démuni que soi." — Clyde Plumosil (32:42)

• Rural Imagery and Music
  "Dors, dors, mon garçon dors, les moutons pèsent au près…" (Alsatian lullaby) — Ayouan Giziou et Jeanne Coppème (19:34)

• Mortality and Blame
  "Pour les enfants placés en nourrice, ça peut aller jusqu'à 40%. [...] l’hécatombe des nourrissons." — Clyde Plumosil (28:12)

• Agency of Wet Nurses on the Labor Market
  "Parfois elles estiment leurs tarifs. [...] elles essayent de négocier leurs conditions de travail." — Clyde Plumosil (46:39)

• Enduring Ties
  "Et la nounou restait la nounou jusqu'à sa mort. Même encore à l'heure actuelle, je connais des gens qui viennent sur la tombe des nounous." — Sidonie Lebeau (31:02)

Important Timestamps & Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |-------------|-----------------------------------------------------| | 00:09-03:32 | Opening, range of meanings & types of nourrices | | 06:24-08:30 | Wet nursing as practice of class, massification | | 13:17-15:50 | "Surlieu" vs "à emporter", economic and social gaps | | 17:47-18:52 | Regions & rural-urban relationships | | 20:54-23:20 | The full scope of care work by the nourrice | | 25:44-27:53 | State regulation & Law Roussel | | 28:12-30:37 | Infant mortality, responsibility and data | | 32:42-35:07 | Chain of care, family/work organization | | 40:14-42:30 | Meneurs, physical transport of infants | | 44:36-46:39 | Labor market, newspaper ads, negotiation | | 53:52-56:24 | Stereotypes, social fantasy, and memory |

Final Reflections

The episode highlights the immense yet often invisible contribution of rural women as nourrices, revealed in both archival traces and collective/familial memory. Their work not only fed generations of French children—both rich and poor—but also bound city and countryside, shaped family structures, and remains a touchstone in the history of women’s labor and care work. The discussion dismantles persistent stereotypes to foreground the complexity, resilience, and strategies of these women whose choices navigated economic necessity, bodily labor, and intergenerational attachments.

Episode in One Sentence:
This episode powerfully re-centers the rural women who, often at great personal cost, nourished and raised other people’s children, forming the backbone of both a vital care market and enduring socio-economic interdependence between city and countryside in French history.