OUR BABIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3864, 3 April 1928, Page 68

OUR BABIES.

Br

Hygeia.

PubHahad under the auspices «f the Qeyal New Zealand Society tor the Health 6* Women and Children (Plunket Society). "It Is wiser to put up a fence at tha top el a precipice than fa maintain an ambulance at tha bottom.”

PLUNKET NURSES, ETC., DUNEDIN BRANCH.

NURSES' SERVICES FREE. Nurses O’Shea (telephone 23-348), Isbister (telephone 10-866)/Thomson, Scott, and Ewart (telephone 10-216), and Mathieson (telephone 23-020). / Society's Rooms: Jamieson's Buildings, 6 Lower Stuart street (telephone 10-216), Office hours, daily from 2 to 4 p.m. (except Saturday and Sunday) and 10 a.m to noon on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays; 315 King Edward street- South Dunedin, t to 4 p.m. daily (except Saturday and Sunday), and 10 a.m to noon on Fridays; also 125 Highgate, Roslyn—Monday and Thursday from 2 to 4 p.m.; Parkbill avenue, Mornington. Wednesdays, 2 to 4 p.m.; Kelsey-Yaralla Kindergarten. Monday and Friday from 2 to 4 p.m.; and at 99 Musselburgh Rise, Wednesdays. 2 to 4 p.m. Out-stations: Baptist Church, Gordon road, Mosgiel, Tuesday afternoons from 3 to 4 o’clock; Presbyterian Church Hall, Outram, alternate Fridays, 2 to 4 p.m.; Municipal Buildings, Port Chalmers, Wednesday afternoons from 2 to 4 o’clock; also Hall. Macandrew’s Bay, Fridays, 2 to 4 p.m. Secretary, Miss G. Hoddinott, Jamis son’s Buildings, Stuart street (telephone 10-216). Karitane-Harris Baby Hospital, Anderson’s Bay (telephone 22-985). Matron, Miss Hitchcock. Demonstrations given on request every Wednesday afternoon from 2.30 by Plunket Nurses and Faritane Baby Nurses. Visiting hours: 2 to 4 p.m., Wednesday Friday and Sunday. MOTHERCRAFT. By “ Mothercraft ” we mean the simple science and the art of correct mothering. Does anyone murmur “maternal instinct”—does anyone still pooh-pooh the idea of applying science to motherhood, saying the bird needs no science, nor the cat, a mammal like ourselves? To such objectors we would say, in the words of Dr Saleeby: Because the human mother “is human her forte is not instinct, but . intelligence. The insect, avian, and feline mother has instinct in various forms and degrees. The cat never gives her kitten ‘ the same as we, have ourselves,’ but her own breast. Within the limits set by a certain range of environment to which they are evolutionally adapted, sub-human mothers ‘ know ’ all they need to know —which is well, for they can scarcely learn. To learn is to be intelligent. The human mother is that; but intelligence, whilst it can learn everything, has everything to learn. That is why the sub-human mother —and father, of course—relying upon fixed, well-adanted, ready-made instinct, seems superior to ourselves, who make the most deplorable mistakes from the moment we begin to try to wash the baby . . until, as ofteu happens, it closes its eyes in the death which our so-called medicines have hastened.” Modern human mothering is an art, not an instinct —else why so many bottlefed babies when the “ good God gives the milk with every mother ” —why so many delicate babies, dead babies? The most tragic feature in the great majority of infant tragedies is the fact that so many might have been prevented—so many are due to ignorance of the simple principles of true “ mothercraft.” The Mothercraft Ideal. All over the world people are waking up to these facts, and are striving to achieve the mothercraft ideal, which aims at having every baby naturally fed and 100 per cent, healthy, happy, and good; every toddler and school child sturdy and robust; every boy and girl aware of the simple essentials for good parenthood—and so back to the beginning of the cycle again, with the mother healthy and happy before and after the birth of her baby, equipped fo rear Al citizens and to deal serenely and successfully with clangers and difficulties which may come—to be, in short, “ the competent executive in her own home.” Here in New Zealand mothers have many facilities to enable them to learn Mothercraft “ as a science and npnlv it as an art,” At the Ante-natal Clinics connected with various maternity homes and at the Plunket roojjis in the main centres, as well as freffn any Plunket nurse and many others, the prospective mother may learn the beginnings of this most fascinating study. And we would urge every mother-to-be to learn as much as she can beforehand, to prepare herself not only for the actual birth of her baby, but for the best possible “ mothering ” afterwards. Knowledge is power, and forewarned is forearmed. Knowledge applied in time could prevent the great majority of early weanings, and, as one French doctor has said, premature separation of mother and child is the greatest cause of infant death, and premature weaning is just as surely premature separation as is premature birth. For the unfortunate baby necessarily deprived of his natural food good mothering in other particulars is even more essential than for the breast-fed baby, to make up for the priceless boon he has lost.

We would not convey the impression that the art of good mothering is difficult to acquire, nor that it entails hardship for mother or child. On the contrary, it is incalculably easier. than the ‘‘old” way .with its frequent feeding, its broken nights, and its rockings to sleep. Good mothering means natural feeding for the baby, regular hours and unbroken nights, and..fresh air and sunshine, and, exercise for all. Good mothering bestows its on mother and child —and on father, too;

Io return to the facilities in our midst for the learning of Mothercraft, there are 114 Plunket homes in New Zealand, ~, *° .help any and every mother with difficulties over feeding or management and to keep a watchful eye on the progress of the normal child—a sort of “ consultant in Mothercraft/’ .Lastly, but not least, there are six Mothercraft homes, situated in the four main centres and in Wanganui and Invercargill respectively.. Here nursing mothers can go into residence with their babies; but the Mothercraft homes deserve a special word to themselves, and next week we shall try to describe them and their purposes.