OUR BABIES.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18536, 5 April 1930, Page 14 (Supplement)

OUR BABIES.

(By HYGEIA). BEST FOR MOTHER AND BABY The question of proper reasons for weaning baby is an ever-recurring one. Far too many babies are still weaned for trifling reasons, and the following little article by Sister M‘Kay in the Women’s Pictorial contains such telling points and practical answers to questions often asked that we are passing it on to our readers:—

“ ‘My doctor believes the mother’s health is more important than the baby’s and that is why he wants me to wean,’ a mother writes, as though to say, ‘You only think about baby, and don’t care a bit about us poor mothers!’ On the contrary, all Truby King followers firmly believe that ‘the health of the mother is the health of the baby,’ but we see no reason why, in most cases, both should not be possible. If sacrifices are to be asked, however, we do incline to the belief that the mother’s duty to her child comes even before her duty to herself. “Suppose your child to be ill. It certainly is not very good for your health to have to nurse him, to stay indoors when the sun is shining, to have anxious, busy days and disturbed nights. But would you, for that reason, say, ‘Someone else must look after him for me’? You know you wouldn’t while you had the capability and strength to nurse him. It may not be a perfect analogy, but it shows what I mean. We must have a sense of proportion about things, and when something is very vital make time and strength for it. “A letter which came this morning had a very gloomy beginning. ‘You remember,’ it ran, ‘how. before baby came, I wrote and told you that I couldn't nurse my other two, that I had a nervous breakdown during the first month of pregnancy, and was ill off and on all through; and yet you advised me not to worry, but to feed baby at least while I was in bed? Well, baby is now four and a-half months old. He weighs nearly 151 b. and, though it has been a struggle, they tell me at the Welfare Centre I must have particularly good milk, for he is so absolutely contented and good. I am feeling better than I have ever felt in my life.’

“Now the truth about breast-feeding is that it is not a great strain on the system at all if wise health laws are followed; but if it were a little bit of a strain, yet it would be well worth it. It may be a strain sometimes carrying baby for the full term, yet mothers grin and bear it because they have to. Can’t they be a little bit plucky over the less tiring nine months that follow, when they have the reward of baby’s bonniness and contentment before their eyes? Surely it is well worth while to make this sacrifice.

“Breast-feeding is not naturally a strain on the system if wise health laws are followed.

“Of course, breast-feeding is tiring when it is treated merely as an extra tagged on to life, instead of a central duty for the time being. “Dashing in, breathless, at the eleventh hour, going to bed late, taking

little or no extra care of the health, the vitality suffers in the end. It is also a strain when the child is allowed to take far more food day by day than is wanted, for that is equivalent to feeding twins! It is also a strain when the whole digestion is undermined by the ridiclous diets which an old-fash-ioned tradition would force on the poor nursing mother. “Suppose you are one of those who do find it a tax. Are you going to give in straight away? “One mother wrote to me: ‘I went to bed every night at 7.30 for the first 10 weeks, and after that never later than 9, and I always had a good midday rest. Now I am feeling perfectly fit, and baby is the very picture of what a Better Baby should be.” “There will be time to frivol after baby is weaned, but never, never again will foundation-laying days come. If you have to make a few sacrifices and discipline your life rather strictly for a while, is it too much for your beloved baby to ask from you? If he were ailing you would tend him day and night. Can you not be equally faithful in prevention? “The healthy mother, whose day includes outdoor exercise, whose long nights are passed in a room with moving air, whose diet is well balanced and rich in vitamins, finds the five short feeds almost the most restful episodes of the days as she settles herself in a comfortable position and let her little one imbibe love and warmth and nourishment in the natural way. “Bottle-feeding is not so labour-sav-ing that weaning will prove a rest to the mother.

“The converse, bottle-feeding, is not such a contract, not so energy-con-serving and labour-saving that weaning is likely to prove such a rest to the single-handed mother. Again and again mothers who have weaned write to express their surprise at the little difference it has made to their day. and to ask wistfully is they could not, even yet, bring back again that germ'-i'ree, blood-heat, natural supply which once they had despised. The truth, of course, is that nothing can be had for nothing, and it does take vitality to rear a little new life, so the wise wother will always conserve her health in every way in her power from the very flrse momsn.” There is not so say that there are no cases in which the mother’s health should be considered first. There are

—but these are special cases, very few and far between, compared with the vast majority where breast-feeding is best for mother and baby.