OUR BABIES

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 176, 30 March 1915, Page 3

OUR BABIES

- - • i (Published by the request of the T*i'7:iC iuipe Blanket • Nurse. Society.) T /NATURAL .<•? FEEDING."..”: ' W i Tlie following article on "Breast-, T feeding,” by' Dr Trilby "Ring, which ap--peared in the first mirabor of the Blanket Magazine, just issued, is so- important that we feel it ought to reach a; larger number of readers;' therefore we publish it in this column. OUGHT THERE TO, BE ANY ; ' FAILURES? ; It may be .laid down a a an axiom that every mother can nourish her off spring uT the natural way. The excop tions are so rare/ and so striking, -at merely.to prove the rule that, practically speaking the breast-feeding of babies should be, and could be salThe necessary exceptions are where tbs mother happens to die, or where she suffers from some form of Consumption which the doctor is satisfied would-involve an undue risk of tubercular Infection in'the course of suckling. Even Syphilis of the mother is not usually a bar to suckling—to deny the baby the breast would be only a further wrong. Apart from such cases as I have indicated, Nature very rarely fails either mother or child in this most sacred and responsible function. Nothing is more curious than the way in which human beings have ; -got into their heads the shallow, silly notion that inability to nurture offspring properly is nothing-to be surprised at under the conditions of modern life. Is it not amazing that a mother will tell one quite as a matter of course nowadays, that she ha s proved unable to feed her child in the only proper way; further to find that she is not a bit ashamed to make the confession? Indeed, she would be naively surprised if one ventured to say to ber: “It seems- to me just as improbable that the Almighty would leave any other essential part of your body (such as your liuigs,- stomach, liver, or kidneys, etc.) unfinished and functionless, as that Ha would endow you with the miraculous power-of giving life to and building up a child within yourself, out of your own substance, and yet that your breasts would fail to fill with the milk needed for the continued life! and (growth of your baby.’ Milton would have said to such a I mother: j “Accuse not Nature, she hath done her part, Do thou but thine.” PRIMITIVE ATTRIBUTES. Nutrition, Reproduction, and the ability to nourish offspring (a s long as may be needed) are the most primitive and deep-seated of all the powers and attributes of living things, whether plant or animal. If we human beings fail in any such fundamental matter, we may be perfectly sure it is not the schsm-e of the world that has been at fault,, but that we ourselves have neglected some simple nedessary habits and ways of life which we ought to have attended to. Among mothers of the present day there is, unfortunately, a large proportion who were bottle-fed throughout Infancy) and most of those women were further handicapped, as regards digestive and nutritive power, by pap-feeding, bad teeth, lack .of openair exercise, excess of schooling, and too much stress in the way of compe-, titions and examinations during puber. ty and adolescence. Indeed, our rearing and training of girls has been conducted apparently with a view to delicate spindterhood; buf> fortunately. Nature always tries to ensure the growth and development of the reproductive system, whatever else is sacrificed, and we find the modern woman not only capable of maternity, but also capable of suckling her offspring if she can only be- Induced to take reasonable care of herself during.the all-important epochs of pregnancy and nursing. Wen tiers can be worked in the- way of making up .for lost time by regular openair exercise, special exercises for the abdominal muscles, proper attention to | the breasts, etc. ABILITY TO NURSE. . The fact is that the normal woman is designed for the complete nursiilg of twins, in case if need, and she should have the power to continue nursing for IS months. We cannot take these powers for granted nowadays, but it i s something to be able confidently to assure the women of our present civilisation that, in spite of all modern mistakes, almost every mother can certainly fit herself to nurse one baby properly for nine months. The first practical step towards ensuring normal motherhood is to bring back, to women faith in them selves. Nothing militates more against easy, natural, unassisted child-birth, and against the normal power to suckle offspring, th'en lack of self-confldencee and it is still worse for motherhood where the woman actually starts out with the definite conviction that she i g not going to succeed. We are always coming across young women who imagine they will not be able to nurse, simply because thenown mothers failed to do so. In other cases we me’at with mothers whose failure to suckle previous babies makes them feel quite certain that they cannot succeed with the latest arrival. Yet again and again, in the course of the last few years, we have

proved the cc-urary, where we could get these very women to start to work 1,0 work and prepare themselves for motherhood in due time- —indeed, in seme -instances where-' -they- had let iVihoi ors: Midi? until beyond : tho sHeyeu/Ip Ac uTr-onr, pome-*of--Tbt> ivhsU’ftdpefuLof these case.;■ the available m-iVk hhipply Actually came' to exceed the need--, of the baby. -This article will be continued next week. : ■ '• |