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Netherlands

The Netherlands, in western Europe, has a population of 16.49 million (2009 estimate) and is regarded as one of the most developed countries in the world, with a health care system and social services more expansive than the vast majority of other countries. The female life expectancy is 81. 7 years. Currently, the Netherlands has a birth rate of 10.9 per 1,000, and an infant mortality rate of 4.9 per 1,000 live births, down from 7 per 1,000 live births in 1990. Because of the widespread availability of free health care, immunization of children against major preventable diseases is one of the highest in the world with only 2 percent of young children not vaccinated against tetanus, diphtheria, and polio. The mortality rate of children aged under 5 years fell from 9 to 6 per 1,000 between 1990 and 2004.

Traditionally, Dutch society has been very conservative, with Calvinism being important from the time of the Reformation in the 16th century, although now only 20 percent of the population is Protestant. During that period, women remained as homemakers, but paintings such as those by Jan Steen show women and girls with men and boys in the marketplaces buying food. In spite of the Puritan Protestant influences, Steen paints scenes inside taverns, where well-dressed women can be seen playing cards with men. The paintings by Pieter de Hooch and P. Janssens show women reading or sewing at home, in quiet but well-ordered households. Vermeer's famous painting A Street in Delft shows a woman working in the doorway of her townhouse.

Birth and Childrearing History

For births during the 16th and 17th centuries, women rested in their last two months of pregnancy, fasting at times, and were visited by female neighbors who would give advice. For middle-class women, as soon as labor pains started, a midwife would be called; for poorer people, the help of an older female relative or neighbor was procured. After birth, women were given buttered bread and milk from a ewe to help rebuild their strength, and sometimes drank brandy and ate sugared almonds; or, for those unable to afford these luxuries, Hollands gin. In instances when the mother was dying, the baby was placed in her arms on the bed for a while.

Baptism always took place as soon as possible after birth, although if the baby was strong, it might be delayed until the mother was able to be present at the ceremony. Because of the cold winters and the damp atmosphere, babies were tightly swaddled and protected against the air. The mother and possibly older siblings took part in raising the child, who, from the time they could walk, often played outside with the other local children.

From the late 17th and the early 18th century, the wealth of the Netherlands allowed for many well-to-do families to have nannies to help with the bringing up of children. Sometimes they would be poorer local girls, but later women from the Dutch colonial empire, the West Indies, or the East Indies (modern-day Indonesia) took part in the raising of children, often serving as wet nurses.

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