So I was thinking today about how Teddy Roosevelt's wife died while giving birth and how Thomas Jefferson's died when they still had a infant daughter. Now I know in countries with nobility there were wet nurses to feed babies, but what about the US? Were there wet nurses for hire? What if someone was poor? Would someone like Jefferson have a slave woman breast feed his children? Did babies ever starve to death simply because their mothers were dead and there was no one to feed them?
Wet nurses weren't only in existence in countries with nobility. Wet nursing was for a long time more about affluence and family wealth than noble title. In fact, the history of wet nursing can be traced back to ancient times.
The United States has a history of the use of wet nurses, and many women who were alive and well did not nurse their own children. Instead, it was left to slaves or employees to do.
Jefferson did indeed have a slave woman nurse his children. Her name was Ursula Granger. It's almost certain that Granger nursed Jefferson's children when his wife was alive.
And I can't really answer your last question - it's entirely possible that some babies did starve to death because their mothers had died and they had no one to feed them.