MOTHERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 192, 15 August 1925, Page 26

MOTHERS.

WHEN THEY NEED MOST CARE.

(By G. EDITH BURTON.)

Though there is a great deal yet to be done for child-bearing women before things are perfect, it is still very heartening to notice how much thought it being expended in this direction. At the same time the old ground seems to be gone over again and again. Safe, perfectly equipped maternity homes is the slogan, and quite right, too. But there is more than that to be thought of, and this is where a really womanly and kind-hearted Plunket nurse can be of such great assistance. There are still women to be found who in these critical nine months seem to be in the best of health and spirits, but as generation succeeds generation they are becoming woefully few. For the ordinary case of to-day, it will be pretty safe to make three groups of two months each, when it maybe said that a woman requires most care. That is, the first two months, the last two months, and the two months after the babe's arrival. It is at these times, more than any time in her life, that a woman wants all the help, the love, understanding and sympathy that her sister women can give her.

To begin with the young wife: Not very long after her marriage, usually |(if living normally), she is plunged into depression and overwhelming nausea experienced by so many women at that time. It is so early in the trial, that ■he cannot bear to speak of it to anyone, and probably she is living right away from her mother. Her husband may be full of sympathy (or he may pot), but he has no conception of her ■offerings, and the little prospective

breaks down entirely. It may be only nervous prostration or it may be much more serious—a mental case for over a year.

These are not exaggerations, as many a mother will know. It is at this time that a mother needs bright, but sensible companionship. A middle-aged woman would, of course, be best, but even a young girl, with a happy, breezy manner, would work wonders in a depressed mother.