The words “nursing mother” translate the Greek term τροφός/trophos. This word refers to a nurse,
that is, one who is hired to provide care for small children. Such a nurse functions as a substitute for a mother in the process of rearing children.
1 In certain cases the word had a narrower meaning, referring to a wet nurse, a woman who was paid to breastfeed babies who were not her own. Wet nurses were not uncommon in the Graeco-Roman world, and were regarded as honoured and beloved figures in the lives of those whom they had nursed.2,3
7 But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.