ABSTRACT
British and Bengali medical practitioners drew intimate biocultural connections between ‘clean’/‘dirty’ midwifery, confinement, childbirth, lactation and nursing of infants in colonial Calcutta. Dhatri/dhai/dai, derived from the word dhā meaning ‘to nurse’, refer to both the traditional midwife and wet nurse. The first section of the chapter discusses the traditional hereditary untrained midwife or dai who was often considered an obstacle to doctors as well as medically trained midwives’ efforts at providing antenatal and postnatal care across colonial India. The second section explores medical advice about hiring a wet nurse as primarily outlined in Bengali midwifery manuals.
