THE BABY IN THE HOUSE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 722, 15 May 1953, Page 5

THE BABY IN THE HOUSE

Sir,-It is probably inevitable that @ny suggestion of meeting all baby’s needs when they arise should meet with puzzled queries about the resulting muddle. It is hard to convince people that, for instance, demand feeding and routine are not mutually exclusive. It simply means that the baby is allowed to establish the routine in the first place, and it is not forced on him from without. I know that a mother who has had correct education and a‘solutely unbroken emotional security throughout pregnancy and. particularly during labour, then meets her child as nature intended, immediately after birth, establishing a good relationship at once, will have unwavering confidence in her ability to meet baby’s demands. Her whole being is attuned to his, as, it should be, and she has no need to give half her mifid either to the clock, or to a "conscientious attempt to follow such advice." The need for more*attention to building mental health in our country has fat too long been ignored. Likewise has its basis in good mother-child relationship from the very moment of birth. Medical people should begin with the parents: the mother, whose emotional needs during pregnancy and labour are of paramount importance, so that there is no stifling of instinctive maternal reactions to the child from the very beginning; and the father, who should cease to be a source for stupid jokes ("we nevet lost a father yet") or just a getm-cartier, and be accepted as an integral part of the emotional unit of father-mother-child. The baby born into stich an ideal ehvironment establishes so easily the flexible routifie your correspondent suggests that there is no strain or muddle, and he is a happy, serene little soul, a joy to the whole household, and a potentially stable adult.

J.

B.

(Opotiki).