TRAINING OF MOTHERS.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 291, 21 November 1936, Page 6 (Supplement)

TRAINING OF MOTHERS.

SUGGESTION* Why not start’ the training of mothers in the nursery through the medium of the doll? This the the suggestion of Dr. A. Ferguson, an English -Medical .Officer of Health. In hlspafiiiual report he says—“We .must train a new type of mother-l-one- who will forget her mother’s, training, and who will become more naturally scientificallyminded. The training should start in early life. This can be done easily in the day nurseries and in the nursery schools, and in the infant classes, and is should be possible to reach the correct playing with dolls on the lines of real infant care.

“The most receptive age, in my opinion, is from 13 to 16,. or even earlier, and here is the finest opportunity of instilling the lessons of motherhood into the future generation of mothers- During the last two years of school life all girls should be taught what motherhood means. They should be taught that childbirth is a perfectly safe and natural process; that nature rebels against being interfered with", generally with disastrous results.

“Thejesson should emphasise that all processes are natural-and safe, for I am afraid that, if tho publicity of the dangers of child-bearing remains in its present intensity it will defeat its object. The future mother must look forward to child-bearing with confidence; otherwise— marriages will become more, childless, still. Let us Instil this confidence and this knowledge in to‘the child of to-day; she will then be the perfect mother of to-morrow/*