BABY WEEK.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17148, 30 October 1917, Page 2

BABY WEEK.

EDUCATION IN PARENTHOOD. MORE THOUGHTS FOE, BABY WEEK. "Tho only ghosts, I believe, who creep into tho world," wroto Sir J. M. Barrio in "Tho Little Whito Bird," "arc dead young mothers, returned to seo how their children faro. There is no other inducement great enough to bring tho departed back." If the dead mothers lire so anxious about tho welfare of their babies, how highly should tho living mothers value tho opportunity of so educating themselves in tho caro of their children as to onsuro them life and health!

It is estimated that' nearly 1500 baibies dio every yexr in tho dominion, and that a largo proportion of theso deaths, duo to ignorance and carelessness, aro roadily proyentible. Ignorance becomes eulpablo when it refuses to bo instructed, and carelessness when it leads to death is criminal. Tho object of tho Baby Week campaign is to give essential instruction and to safeguard against carelessness, so that the babies may live and not die.

Those in a position to know aro of tho opinion, after careful investigation, that nearly 1500 babies a-ro prevented from being born overy year in tho dominion, owing to the selfishness, tho cruelty, or tho sin .of father or mother, or both. There is room for the expression of a public opinion which will diminish, it it docs not abolish, this wicked sacrifice of child-lifo. Whilo it may possibly and plausibly bo argued that a return to tho largo families of tho past may not bo practioable or prudent, tho present limitation of families by artificial means and tho increase in Childless marriages aro greatly to bo deprecated.

Mothers may do much, first by learning everything that it is necessary to loam concorning the importance and responsibilities of motherhood, and then by instructing their young daughters in tho same subject. The mothercraft exhibitions which have been arranged for during tho present week are expressly desognod to help in this direction.

Tho health of tho children depends to an enormous extent upon the health of the mother. All other considerations should bo made to give way to considerations of healtik Tho strain and stress bf social and industrial lifo during tho period of childbearing react oftentimes most unfavourably upon both mothers and children. The nurses of tho Plunket Society, as the' Royal Society for tha Protection of Women and Children is colloquially called, are at the service of all the mothers and tho potential mothers, and tho knowledge gained; by scientific study and by everyday experience is at the disposal of every mother.

Tho racial responsibility, which in timo of war must bo shouldered by every citizen, is especially the responsibility of the mother. In a very special sense, other things being equal, the mother is ablo to securo for her baby a birthright of mental and bodily healtih. One writer has truly said, "The self-denial of the parent for tho child is tho foundation on which tho human familv is built. Tho true mother gives her whole life for her children. Tho true father toils not for himself, but for these who aro his. There is literally nothing which lovo will not prompt a parent to do for the sake of a child, even to tho laying down of life itself." Just a little baby, lying in my armsWould that I could keep you, with your baby charms! Helpless, dinging fingers, downy golden hair, Where the sunshine lingers, caught from otherwhere! Blue eyes asking questions, lips that cannot speak, Roly-poly shoulders, dimple in your oheck; Dainty little blossom in a world of woe, Thus I fain would keep you, for I lovo ' —Louise Chandler Moulton.