Childcare and Population Growth in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

One of the unsolved puzzles around the Jewish experience in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is the issue of fast demographic growth. Today many historians agree that lower infant and child mortality was one of the factors that contributed to the increase in Jewish population numbers. In my lecture, I will claim that early childcare norms and practices prevailing among the Jews of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had an impact on lower infant and child mortality, and thus might have influenced the population growth rates. To support this claim, I will briefly discuss Jewish and Polish norms and practices of early childcare and establish their benefits for infant and child survival according to the modern medical knowledge. For example, I will argue that Jewish practice of breastfeeding of infants with colostrum was more beneficial to infant survival than the non-colostrum practice prevailing in the Polish society. Other discussed aspects of early childcare will include postnatal care, feeding norms and weaning policies, wet nursing rules, as well as remarriage and family support in child raising. Despite the risk implicit in generalization, the problematic nature of the sources and the question of the extent to which the religious norms actually determined everyday practice, I hope to outline some general trends and establish childcare as on of the factors that contributed to the unprecedented growth of Jewish population in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.