OUR BABIES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2461, 27 March 1909, Page 12 (Supplement)

OUR BABIES.

Published under tho auspices of the Society for the Promotion of • tlio Health of Women'and Children.

(By Hygeia.) FOOD FOR- NURSING MOTHERS

Overfeeding and sedentary habits, oombinod with an insufficiency of time spent in the open air and sunshine, cOmtribute more than any other factors to impair tho health of modern women, and suffice, to render thorn incapable of properly fulfilling the calls of motherhood.

To give some idea of how moderate an allowance of food may suffice for a nursing mother, and to show that the. routine injunction of many nurses—- “ Remember, you must eat for two” — is absurd and misleading, I translate the following from a recent bulletin of the “Society de Pediatric de Paris, the leading medical society in devoted to the welfare Table Showing .-{riT'Ordinary Routine water) Given to Wet-Nurses at a Typical Paris Hospital. Bread l&lb Roast meat, about ... 11b Vegetables, about ... lib Cooked fruit 2oz Eggs ... 2 In addition the nurse receives less than, half a pint of milk and some thin wine. Though win© is generally allowed in Franco, it will bo shown in next week’s art’ele that alcohol in any form is not really advisable for tho nursing mother. The above diet is exceedingly moderate, in view of what is expected of professional wet-nurses in Paris, and in some cases, where an excessive demand is made, it cannot be rigidly adhered to. However, Professor Budin says in his recently published book, “The Nursling” (English translation :) — Tho average quantity of milk daily furnished by the wet-nurses we em-

ploy will seom to you considerable. It is a source of wonder to us also. These women do not receive-any particular or extraordinary diet. They were, of course, selected because of their apparent fitness. In October, 1895, we had 50 weakling babies in tho hospital. Tc provide their nourishment V*ero were only 14 wet nurses, and they had, in addition, to bottle-feed their own babies. Further, they had to wash, hath, and dress all their chargee, change the hot water in tho incubators, keep their own dormitory and dining room in order, etc. Under these conditions the 14 wet-nurses were jaded and worn out, the nurslings entrusted to them scarcely increased in weight, and their own ball ies Hid not thrive. I therefore reduced tho number of weaklings from 50 to 4<), by not replacing those who left or died. Our 14 wet-nurses had still to care for 40 (14 —54) infants (just four infants each), but they had now to give„.not moro than 34 feeds a day, instead of 40. Thenceforth all went well 1 . . . . Ever 3' fortnight the amdunt of milk given by tlio wet-nurses was estimated. .. . Here, then, are women who becamo capable of furnishing 2230 grammes each of milk per diem. It must not be thought that the average is based on insufficient data, as it is founded upon statistics relating to seven wetnurses, one of whom, indeed, yielded as much as 2840 grammes' per 24 house (five pints a day) 1 It might bo supposed, that such enormous supplies of breast-milk could not bo sustained, but cases are cited by Professor Budin showing that some of the nurses continued to yield as much as three pints of healthy milk per diem for moro than a year after the birth of the baby. At first the supply would be quite small perhaps, but as more demand was made on them tho supply of milk gradually increased to a maximum, varying with the particular nurse.. Professor Budin sums up his conclusion as follows:

“It is thus clearly demonstrated that the quantity of milk increases with the demand made on the breasts, and diminishes as the nurslings need less, or are less numerous.” Thus an ordinary women fed on an ordinary diet would bo capable of fully nourishing, say, at least two babies when leading a regular life in an institution. The Paris nurses are not drawn from a specially robust class, and, granting that the most suitable are selected from" amongst the candidates, one would not even so expect them to represent a very high standard of physical fitness. If such women can properly nourish three babies, surely the average of our own race should bo capable of feeding two if called on, and, “a fortiori,’ only one! The amour propro. oft .the Anglo-Saxon woman ought to make her rise to full self-confidence as to being capable of doing at least as well for her offspring as the average French woman! Selfconfidence in all such matters is of great importance, Wo don’t need to bo professional hypnotists to realise that what wc beliovo and expect tends to como to pass, • and that when we have unduo anxiety about anything, ,or distrust our own mechanism, it tends to fail us in regard to the particular function mistrusted. There is no natural function, to which this applies more forcibly tlia/ to the secretion of milk. If a motjT has confidence in herself and does/j right thing, an ample supply .qp

b least-milk will rarely bo wanting. The Plunket Nurse has no more important lesson to convey to the community than this, and wo believe that no argument would tend more to rouse our women out of the prevailing lack of confidence in themselves as mothers than the reflection, “What French women can do, surely we can!’ 1 It goes without saying that the profession of wet-nursing, as carried duo on tho Continent, would bo repugnant to orory senso of propriety and fitness among our own women. Further, the inordinate demands made on French women would, of course, not be exacted or desired in any of our hospitals; but tho fact that French city women can and do nourish several children should make every mother in our midst confident in her own power to feed her own offspring in tho natural way.