THE NURSERY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 3768, 1 March 1913, Page 4

THE NURSERY.

(By “Mater.”) Published under the auspices of the Society for the Health of Women and Children. “It ia wiser to put fence at the top t>f a precipice than to main.tain an ambulance at the bottom.”

A MOTHER’S LETTER. (Continued). Last week I lmd to deal with tho Thermos Flask, interrupting tht further consideration of a Mother’s Letter, which I had been dealing with in the previous week’s column. I now return to the letter .- “In connection with regular feeding, using dummies, etc., etc., I think it is the maternity nurses, and not the mothers, who require most teaching. For the first fortnight in all cases (in, some even longer) the maternity nurse is ‘boss,’ and lays tint foundations of tho baby’s habits, and the- mother lias to follow on, very often whether she wants to or not. “If not wearying an worrying you, I will explain what I mean. I live in the back-blocks, and had to drive 25 miles to my nurse—the only one to bo had. When 1 left her the river was in flood and the roads impassable, and for a month I stayed at a boardinghouse partly, and partly with friends. Baby had been trained to night-feed-ing hv 'the nurse, and, for the peace of others, I had to continue. “My iirst hoy was born in a nursing home in a city. 1 lived 96 miles out. At the nursing home the nurse wouju use a ‘dummy’ whenever the baby cried. I was at this home three weeks, and then was stranded in the city for another month, owing to heavy rains flooding the river. For the sake of others at the boarding-house, 1 had to continue tho ‘dummy,’ and after I got baby home it was a most difficult thing to do without, and meant endless crying. “My second hoy was also horn in the city, and that nurse also would use a, ‘dummy.’ The same thing happened, for, owing to heavy rain, 1 was again stuck, and had to stay at a hotel for over a fortnight, where I had intended to be only one night. Here also, for the sake of other boarders, I had to continue using the ‘dummy.’ However, I did not take it home with me, and the baby started sucking his thumb, and now, though two and ahalf years old, I can’t break him of the bad habit. I have put on gloves for weeks at a time; used mustard, peppermint oil, etc., pinned his sleeves to his side, etc., but the first nigho I leave off the preventative there he is with thumb in mouth at one.

“When the maternity nurses are properly trained regarding such matters it would be much easier for the mothers, for, as I have shown, some of these nurses not only train the babies wrongly, but teach young mothers, who do not know very much, everything wrong to start with. v “The last nurse I went to was a firm believer in using castor oil frequently fo mother and baby. _ There was a young mother with her first boy there at the same time as myself, and the nurse dosed them both every other day with castor oil, and told the mother it was the right thing to do. I saw her a week or so ago. The baby was always constipated, and so she alwavs had to be giving him oil, or lie would not have a motion for three days. I made her a soap-pencil and showed her how to use it, and begged her to stop the oil and diet herself, for the baby’s sake, with fruit, etc., and she is now doing so, and baby is improving. She was nearly cryingabout it. She was a shop assistant before her marriage—knows hardly anything about babies, and had asked our nurse to tell her all she could, and the use of castor oil, night-feeing, and ‘dummy’ had all been well taught her. Many another young mother will be started wrong by the same nurse, I suppose. “No, I am not a member of your Society, though I have given subscriptions as a slight ‘thank-offering’ for all that Karitane Hospital Doctors and Plunket Nurses did for my eldest boy for the time he was under their care—to say nothing of the lectures out at Karitane which I attended. I have just given small sums at odd times; but presume becoming a member means an annual subscription. If that is so, I should like to join in h few months’ time. 1 have had so many expenses lately that I cannot do so just now. “Apologising for this long letter, though I wanted to try and convey to you mv idea where the teaching is required", and thanking the Society for all it is now doing and lias done tor our babies.”

COMMENT BY MATER. I regret to say that I have other recent letters making similar complaints as to the misleading advice <riven to mothers by maternity nurses, and I have heard many adverse comments in my travels. No doubt, we women—all ot us—tend to be very conservative, and we find it very difficult to get out of ruts which have been well-born for us m the past. So long as the sticking to old ways which have, been proved to be ! wrong affects only ourselves, the matter may not be very serious ; but when women who are trusted and licensed to guide and direct mothers and to mould the rising generation stubbornly refuse to learn what is best, and won’t mend the error of their ways, the matter is one of very grave public concern. Further, it is not fair to those maternity nurses who keep up with the trend of advancing knowledge and carry enlightenment into the home, instead of plunging it into greatness. • All * right-thinking people must heartily sympathise with the mother whoso letter I have quoted, and 1 leel sure that most of our readers will agree that something ought to be done in the direction of safe-guarding women—especially young mothers—from the misleading domination oi such maternity nurses as obstinately refuse to conform to those principles and conditions which are known to be m the highest interests of mother and child. Further comment on the damage done by the dummy need not be made at the present moment; but- it is only fair to the class of nurse of whom J. Jiave been speaking to say that there are hospitals in the Dominion where the use of the dummy is still allowed, merely to save the nurse or the institution the trouble, at the moment, of giving the baby proper attention or treatment in other directions. jVs lons., as such vicious habits are countenanced in public institutions the struggle for reform must continue to be a very difficult one; and wrong-doers will excuse and ' shelter themselves behind the wrong-doing of those who certainly ought to set the highest example to the community.

I shall specially deal next week with the harm done to mother and child by the abuse of castor oil as described by our correspondent.