WHILE THE BABY CRIES

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22389, 30 April 1938, Page 19

WHILE THE BABY CRIES

Nurses Need to Be Diplomats

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[By X.K.]

NOTHING upsets the smooth running of a home so much as the arrival of, a new baby. The Karitane nurse, so often called into help at this difficult stage, or later when things have gone wrong, meets all kinds of people under conditions of stress. She needs to be something of a diplomat as well as an expert with babies.

One sort of situation is almost stereotyped. An urgent telephone call shatters a nurse's hopes of a lazy day or two at home between cases. An agitated male voice begs her to come at once, and explains incoherently the extraordinary symptoms the new baby is showing. The new father ends up by saying that £e will call for her immediately. The nurse learns, incidentally, that only two days before he and his wife set out fro:a the nursing home armed with instructions from the matron on "how to bring up baby " Then it all seemed so easy. Anybody with average intelligence knew how to look after a baby. But did they? The small bundle in the basket seems to have knocked all the theories to pieces, and after an unequal struggle the harassed father and mother thankfully hand over to nurse.

Many a time I have arrived at a home to be greeted by the whole family, including grandmother, pacing up and down crooning to the rebellious infant. . Somehow, in such times of stress, when the mother is perhaps feeling too weak and ill to cope with tnings, and the father is feeling the weight of his new re« sponsibilities pressing rather heavily on him—it is grandmother who so often turns up trumps, and is the mainstay of the family until nurse arrives. Not Always Welcome Usually I have been welcome in the homes I have been called to. But not always. Never will I forget another and totally different greeting I received—not from the parents, but from the "help." "My Gawd, if you don't behave yourself, you'll soon pack your traps and

go," she said. "You girls what wear caps think you can put on airs, but *m boss here. See!" Did I see? Well, there was I, fairly »ew to the work, miles from home •nd in the country with howling

twins and a sick mother. I felt so desperate I wanted to sit down and howl with the babies. It certainly would have sounded like the zoo. Hospital training and a little tact, however, eased the situation, and inside a week cook was my staunch friend and ally. Sometimes other people are rude. One of my most embarrassing experiences occurred when 1 had been in a house only one day. An aunt of one of my charges "sauntered into the nursery with a cigarette dangling from her lip, looking me up and down superciliously. Then she said to her small nephew: "So this is your new nurse, is it, Bobbie?" and without another word walked out. I found it hard to believe that anyone could be so horrid. But there are compensations. For a time I was with a foreign countess who was travelling through New Zealand. She had one child. Suddenly, in contrast to my previous cases, life was rosy. We did lovely things and had such fun together. She was charming, cultured, and much travelled. As she was not in very good health I looked after her, too, and loved doing so. She had all the fascination of a European aristocrat together with a droll sense of humour. For instance, one day at the hotel I was just about to step into the bath when the door opened and a man's hand came round. I squealed and the gentleman retired hurriedly. -

Apparently the Countess had been coming towards the bathroom and saw what happened. She assured me: "You do not want to worry. He is a married man." That was a Continental point of view if you like!

But the babies themselves, as well as their elders, can put the nurse to an awkward predicament. People often ask me: "Is there any chance of babies in hospitals and nursing homes getting mixed?" It isn't a pleasant speculation to tliink that Mrs Brown might be landed

J with Mrs Jones's son instead of her own. ~ , I remember being called suddenly into a strange hospital one night to do night duty. I arrived just before the last feed. A nurse on duty hurried me round the wards and rooms telling me who and where the different mothers were. Then we went to the nursery to inspect my 17 charges. All went well until I presented two babies to the wrong mothers. Then came indignant cries from both of them at once: "This isn't my baby!" . I gathered them both hurriedly back into my arms and dashed into the corridor trembling with fright. I had committed the unpardonable crime of muddling the babies. After carrying them round to another ward, where apparently nobody owned them, I was becoming thoroughly agitated, and called to a nurse hurrying by, and explained what a dreadful thing I had done, and asked could she help me. She just coolly flicked up the tail of their little night shirts and behold, in bold letters, their names! The relief was intense. The system of marking differs m all hospitals, but it is always so thorough from the time the baby is born that there is no fear of misAnother question I am sometimes asked is: "Have you ever dropped a baby?" Perhaps I have been lucky, but I have escaped doing that. The question is probably prompted by the many tales told about how nurse dropped poor Johnnie when he was a baby—thus accounting for some of Johnnie's later peculiarities. I expect it is true that many a baby has had a fall, but for very few of them is the nurse, with her thorough training and wide experience, responsible. So often a tiny baby, when taken up. howls and waves its arms about helplessly, and its cries do not indicate pain or hunger, but fear. Fear of a fall is one of the first sensations babies are aware of. That is why they so often behave better with their nurse, who handles and wraps them firmly and decisively, than with an uninitiated person, however kind, who handles them in a tentative wav. as if thev might break at the slightest touch.

Molasses and Silk Stockings

Few people probably know that the jet-black, sticky mass known as molasses is used, among other things, for applying the sheen to artificial silk stockings. Distilling and the manufacture of cattle food were the two chief industries formerly connected with molasses, but recent technical discoveries have opened up a number of varied and interesting uses to which it can be put. Molasses is now used in the manufacture of perfumes and quick-drying paints. It' is distilled to produce alcohol motor spirit, which is now being used to an increasing degree. By means of another process molasses is used to apply the sheen to artificial silk stockings. The value of this Tjy-product of the sugar industry has naturally been fully recognised in cane-growing countries, most of which now retain a certain proportion of their molasses for local manufacturer ._. ~_ J ._