OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 62, 7 December 1918, Page 5

OUR BABIES

'|BY fII'GEIA.I .Published under tlio-auspices of tho Royal Wow Zealand Society for tho Ketilth of Women and Children. "It ia wiser to put up a fence at tno top of a precipice than to an ambulance at ttie bottom." , ■ NATUEAIi FEEDING. Last week I publiahod tho firet portion o[ a new' section which has been added to tho English edition o£ tho society 8 book, "Natural Feeding of Infants, line week I am Eiving the remainder of the section. i The Genesis and Waning of Civic Responsibility, Self-Sacrifice, and Altruism Wliat i 8 best for the child is best for the mother aud best for tho race, apart altogether from the question of tlio fate of • tho individual child itself. Tho. one thing thai stands out clearly as the osEential summing up of Biieli researches asi those given to tho world by Oeddcs and Thompson in "Sex." and Dr. Sutherland in Inn great monograph, "The Evolution of tlie ■ Moral' Instinct" is that every link of higher love, sympathy, and altruism possessed by man-all this is noblest and beet in us-has been gradually foiled throußh'tho orcs, out of love and sacrifice for offspring, showing itself very early in ■tho animal serioe and culnunatintr in our-selves-vilisinatlng in tho life-lons devotion of the mother to tho child, added to tho earlier Riving up of a- part of herself for the saio of the new boinp-the bodily sacrifice wiilch she ofl'crß in common with tho rest of Creation. , Dovotion to. family, clan, ami country (patriotism), ami doyottoit to tho.-broad interests of mankind- (humanitariatiiem) are huilt into the same foundations. If the foundations aro -made sound all will yet be well ivith lis, but not unless. History shows that the decline of the great nations and empires of the past has been ushorcd in by ft falling off in home life and & the willingness of man and wife, to dovotn themselves to the full duties, sacrifices, and responsibilities of parenthood.- , ~ Gihbon and Scolv leave us in no doubt on this mat tor. They point out that tlie docay of Grcieco and Home wns not primarily due to a fallum off in the prowess of tho Phalanx and tho Loeion. but to increase in luxury, lefeenod exertion, lessened contact .with the open air, a growing cost in tho standard of living, and an increasing selfishness which expressed themselves in a- disinclination for the tips of marriage and parenthood. Normal life wns shirked, and decadence and sterility led to the fall. Sneakinn- of Grooce, Professor Seely remarks that there arose a- pronnral repugnance to marriige, and a reluctance to roar largo.fannies, oftiiFcii by nn extra --anpantly hush standard vof comfort: In Home he showed that a similar manciple of decay assorted Itself. "The Boroan of Iranerial times came to profer celibacy to marruifte. nml thus-was usherodin a period of sterility or barrenness in human heince— the mini nn harvest was bad." But wore the prospects of tlm human harvest over worse among tho Patricians of old Komo than they arc a s>olls the finest human stocks of to-ds-y? It appears, from the U.S.A. Birth Statistics Tie. port just issued., from TVashington. that to an average birth-sate of 25 nor IOKI. the native-born Americans contribute »t tho rate of only about 16 births nor ICOO, whore-ns the immigrant population shows over 40 per 1000. Ununllv. significant is Hi" following nassn,"e which appears in the introduction. After referring to the steady decrease in the fecundity of Harvard and Yaje graduates, tho roport trobs on to say it has Ixjra calculated that, "from a total of 5618 cradiwitM investigated, .there will he nt the cm! of 200 yeare only 852 male descendants." Tho same test applied to women of the more canable arj. woll-to-do clnsses would bo still lees satisfactory. 11l nil civiliaed countries a emalley 'ana smaller percentage of now population is being derived Trim the best sources, and from quarters where there would ho ample to provide tor larger families if they were desired. , Every detail of oiir falling-off durinir the last half-ccntnry in respect to population and family life was illustrated in,Greeceand Rome, but their children, delivered over to bo suckled hv slaves, were better off than ours reared hy hand, whother the hottle-feedliiK is done in the ualace -or the cottage or tho creche. Tlir rapid growth ' and oxtension of creches and day nurseries for basics, however nnoessnry and benoilcient at the mo--raont, is n further mrnaco ,ie regards the future. Facilities offered to tlv? mother to suond her day away from homo, whether she ho-married or single, afford no triio or permanent solution of, tho problem. However stupendous tlie obstacles that lio in 1 the wny-»nd they are stupendous—a solution ought to bo found which would enable all children to bo nursed by thoir mothers for at loast six months. This is tho only,, road, to salvation Cor the girl; who has .gone astray, iiri'i sur.olv- sonip. Wav can .Im discovßi'ntt ,to enablo the married'woman to complelo the cycle of * motherhood honourably and faitlifully, instead of making it easy for her'to spoil hersoif and hor child at the moet lnomentoue period of life for both, merely in order to supplement the husband's earnings. If we fold our hands in tho face of such problems ».nd say there ie no solution, then-as the late Major-General Sir Frederick Maurico said many years ago when speaking of-physical deterioration—"we proclaim ourselves guilty of the woret of civic crimes—viz., 'to despair of tho State.'" But wo have no right to fold our hands and no reason lor despair. AH we have to do is to iotifc ahead, do tho things wo have left undone, and navo the way to preparednosf;' for motherhood.. from this time forth. • By toaohing. trainiii£, and holnine tho mother of to-day and of thejnext twenty years in motherhood and luoihercraft, wo can ensure, as far as possible that every new arrival and notelitial parent of the future shall'crow up 6trong, healthy, capable, and fit in due time for full citizenship and ideal parenthood.