OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 44, 16 November 1918, Page 5

OUR BABIES

|"B/ HTGSIA.I

Published under tho auspicesi ■of tho Royal New Zealand Society lor tue Health of Women and Children. "It ia wiser to put up a lence at tno top of a precipice than to maintain an Miibulance at tno bottom. THE NATURAL'FEEDING OP INFANTS. Tho little booklet, "Tho Natural Feeding of Infants" which was brought out las* year during Baby Week, has .just been 5r Fairbairn is Obstetric physician and Lecturer on Midwifery and Women St. Thomas's ltospi.al, Lonaoi. and as wo feel sure that interest m this all important matter will he stimulated by whatTe ml we are publishing theintro- '* started work » very large proportion of the babies in New Zealand were artificially fed as a matter of course-one working man's ,vifo saying that "it was not considered delicate to nurse a, baby." The desire to nourish offspring has now become.almost.universal, and wo feel that this booklet on natural feeding will be. very helpful, especially to the inexperienced. The pamphlet can bo obtained from the Plunkef nurses throughout the Dominion, prico 6d., and we advise those who havo not alreadj- got it to order a copy and study it carefully. We also adviße our readers to keep Dr. Fairbairn'B introduction, and also some .additional matter which has been added in tho London edition, and which wo shall print .in this column later. If these clippings aro pasted in the New Zealand pamphlet, "Natural Feeding of Infants." it will bo auite complete and ud to.'date.

DK. FAIBBAIRN'S INTRODUCTION. ■ I am clad of tile opportunity of bringing before the British public this extended reprint of a brochure recently ißsued at tho Antipodes by- the Royal New Zealand Sooiety fo; the Health of Women -and Children, of which the author is bom founder and president.

At.tho present moment nothing could bo more oppprtune or important for tho weltare of mother and child and the futuro uf the race than Dr. Triiby King's moving appeal r,ad clear unanswerable arguments in favour of natural as opposed to artificial roaring in early infancy.

-. It is not enough for our women to recognise, as they do already, more or less, that breast-feeding is best for both mother and child. What needs to be deeply im-, pressed on them is that failure in nursing is almost -always due not to failure of Nature, but to failure to livo in accord with natural laws and requirements ana failure in management. Wo must enlighten public opinion on the subject and mako the truth perfectly plain, because for a generation or more tha artificial feeding ot babies haß become so general and widespread as to be almost taken for granted in many cases. Women do not truly realise that even the best substitute lor the natural food iB always second best, and that the process of feeding by bottle iB as inferior to suckling as artificial food is to natural food. The medical profession is not without blame in this matter. True, it has given lip-service to tho general principle, and there havo always been voices 'crying in the wilderness; but the profession as a wholo has not- made a strong enough stand against failure to nurse or early weaning. With feeble protest doctors have tended to fall in with the wishes or whims of their patients, and often, on llm flimsiest grounds, they lia-vc consented to bottle-feeding, and so in a sense have bccomo particeps criminiß.i ' Certainly the medical profession lias failed hitherto 10 arouse any strong feeling on tho subject of broast-feeding, especially in face of thn deßire of patients to escapo what so many havo come to look on superficially as an irksome and needless burthen instead of regarding it in the true light as a boundeu duty and sacred privilege. Further, mothers w v ho wisli to do so could easily And many Instances of seeming success of bottle-feeding in their own circle,, and plead justification—not realising that, oven if true, single, instances afford no solid groiuul for generalisations. Has bottle-feeding ever ,achiovcd for any chiM what breast-feeding could not exctl—and" if so why do wo rocogniso wet-nursing as best, whero feasible, if the mother fails? Tho ovilß of substitute feeding are not disproved in tho very slightest by hundreds or thousands of examples of children who havo apparently thriven, in spito of it. A true judgment can.be formed only by allowing for the higher standard obtainable, and by considering the actual rcsultß over tens and hundreds of thousands—the results not in childhood only, but in adolescence and in after life. Then the ovidenco is indisputable mat artificial feeding is vastly inferior feeding, and that as regards growth, health, stamina, and tho power of resisting disease, tho bottle-fed baby is handicapped, not only at the Btart of life, but all through.

To tho mother also nothing but good results from completing the cycle of motherhood. Tho montal and moral effects on her are difficult to express and impossible to define precisely, but she,is always a better -woman for having nuracd her child. The bodily benefits are much more easily explained. For nine months tho child haß drawn its sustenanco from organs within tho mother, and a special blood supply haß arisen to meet this extra doman<l. After birth, the suckling of tho child should divert this Mood-supply to the breasts, and tho internal organs should shrink to their former" size and weight This is why, in the absenco of suckling there is a tendency of congestion, permanent enlargement, descont of these organs, and other displacements. Wo shall give tho remainder of Br Fairbairn's "Introduction" later.