Transcriber’s Note
Italic text displayed as: _italic_
BETTER BABIES
AND THEIR CARE
BETTER BABIES
AND THEIR CARE
BY
ANNA STEESE RICHARDSON
NATIONAL CHAIRMAN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HYGIENE, CONGRESS OF
MOTHERS AND PARENT-TEACHER ASSOCIATIONS
[Illustration: Decoration]
NEW YORK
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
_Copyright, 1914, by_
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
_All rights reserved, including that of translation into
foreign languages_
SECOND PRINTING
TO
THE ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND BABIES
THE ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND MOTHERS
THE ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND HELPERS
WHO HAVE TAKEN PART IN BETTER BABIES CONTESTS
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
BY A MOTHER WHO KNOWS WHAT
BETTER BABIES, BETTER MOTHERS, BETTER HELPERS
MEAN TO THIS AND FUTURE GENERATIONS
PREFACE
It was in January, 1913, that the _Woman’s Home Companion_ sent
Anna Steese Richardson to Denver, Colorado, to report a Baby Health
Contest held in connection with the National Western Live Stock
Exposition. There she found babies being examined for physical and
mental development, and scored for points by standards of weights and
measurements very much as live stock is scored at agricultural fairs.
Mrs. Richardson’s journalistic instinct told her that here was a big
constructive work, at its very beginning, and that its spectacular
possibilities would make attractive “copy” for a magazine. But before
she left Denver for New York she had begun to think of something
much bigger and more important than what the babies could do for the
magazine, and that was what the magazine could do for the cause of
better babies.
As a result of this trip, the _Woman’s Home Companion_ adopted as
its own special charge the work now known all over the world as the
Better Babies campaign. This has quickly become a widespread movement
for education in parenthood. Pride of parenthood brings fathers and
mothers to the Better Babies Contests. Parental love holds them there
to watch their babies examined by physicians and to learn how the
condition of their children can be improved by intelligent care and
feeding and sanitary environment.
The results are so far-reaching that one hesitates to put them into
words, for fear they may seem overstated. After a little more than
one year of hard work, the Better Babies Bureau of the _Woman’s Home
Companion_, under the directorship of Anna Steese Richardson, has
become a tremendous machine for aiding in the reduction of infant
mortality, and for raising physical, mental, and moral standards among
children.
Naturally, the starting-point for much of this work has been the
fair—state, county, and local. These widely advertised contests have
been a sort of blare of trumpets to attract attention. But above and
beyond this element has been the quiet and persistent growth of the
work among board-of-health officers, medical societies, club women,
church organizations, physicians, nurses—in fact, among all bodies of
men and women especially interested in child welfare. The fostering and
furthering of this work, which has progressed beyond all expectations,
has been Mrs. Richardson’s chief joy and pride during a year of almost
unbelievable endeavor.
The author of this book is a keenly interested and intelligent
observer. While she has gathered into the book much that is of real
scientific value, contributed by physicians, nurses, psychologists,
and social workers, still the chief usefulness of the volume, it seems
to me, lies in the fact that it is a message from one mother to other
mothers, and is written in the language that all mothers can understand.
The woman who writes it has had not only the actual experience of
bearing and rearing her own children, but she has had the rare
privilege of corresponding with mothers from every point in the United
States, of witnessing many of the Better Babies Contests, and of
studying not only what is the matter with the sick baby, but why the
well baby is well.
GERTRUDE B. LANE
_Editor, Woman’s Home Companion_.
March 26th, 1914.
CONTENTS
PAGE
DEDICATION v
PREFACE vii
CHAPTER I
PREPARATION FOR MOTHERHOOD 1
MOTHERHOOD A PROFESSION WHICH REQUIRES
TRAINING—PRENATAL INFLUENCE
AND HYGIENE—MATERNITY CLOTHES
CHAPTER II
BABY’S BIRTHDAY 20
CHOOSING THE NURSE AND DOCTOR—SANITARY
BEDROOM AND ITS EQUIPMENT—THE
BABY’S LAYETTE—PREVENTION OF BLINDNESS
IN NEW-BORN BABIES—THE BABY’S
FIRST BATH
CHAPTER III
THE NURSING BABY 36
THE NURSING BABY—WHY THREE HUNDRED
THOUSAND BABIES ARE SACRIFICED EVERY
YEAR TO IGNORANCE—INFLUENCE OF THE
MOTHER’S DIET ON THE BABY’S HEALTH—WHEN
THE NEW-BORN BABY MUST BE
BOTTLE-FED—A WELL-BALANCED DIET FOR
THE NURSING MOTHER—CARE OF THE
BREASTS AND NIPPLES—IMPORTANCE OF REGULARITY
IN NURSING
CHAPTER IV
ARTIFICIAL FEEDING 50
WHEN ARTIFICIAL FEEDING IS NECESSARY—WEIGHT
THE TEST OF PROPER NOURISHMENT—COW’S
MILK, CAREFULLY MODIFIED,
IS THE BEST SUBSTITUTE FOR MOTHER’S
MILK—SOURCE OF SUPPLY AND CARE—CARE
OF THE BOTTLES AND NIPPLES
CHAPTER V
FORMULAS FOR ARTIFICIAL FOODS 65
FORMULAS FOR MODIFYING MILK—MILK
SUGAR, CANE SUGAR, OR MALT SUGAR—HOW
TO TELL WHEN THE BABY IS PROPERLY
NOURISHED—LIME WATER IN THE MILK—CONDENSED
MILK—PATENT FOODS
CHAPTER VI
GUARDING THE BABY’S DIGESTION 79
STRONG DIGESTION MEANS A STRONG BABY—BOWEL
CONDITIONS TELL THE STORY—THE
UNDERFED AND THE OVERFED BABY—SYMPTOMS
OF DISORDER IN THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM—VOMITING—COLIC
AND CONSTIPATION—DIARRHEA
AND ITS TREATMENT
CHAPTER VII
TEETHING AND WEANING 97
TEETHING A NATURAL PROCESS—PUTTING
THE BABY IN SHAPE TO TEETHE EASILY—DENTITION
TABLE—CARE OF THE FIRST
TEETH—GRADUAL WEANING IS SIMPLE PROCESS—ALTERNATE
BREAST AND BOTTLE FEEDING—EVILS
OF DELAYED WEANING—DIET
TABLES FOR CHILDREN FROM NINE MONTHS
TO THIRTY-SIX MONTHS
CHAPTER VIII
CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH 112
HOW TO GIVE THE BABY’S BATH—CARE OF
THE VARIOUS ORGANS—THRUSH AND ITS
TREATMENT—SPECIAL BATHS FOR DELICATE
CHILDREN—HABITS OF CLEANLINESS
CHAPTER IX
FRESH AIR AND SLEEP AS HEALTH PRODUCERS 126
HEATING AND VENTILATING THE NURSERY—OUTDOOR
NAPS—SLEEPING HOURS FOR THE
NORMAL BABY—WHY SOME BABIES DO NOT
SLEEP
CHAPTER X
HOW THE NORMAL BABY GROWS 137
WHAT SHOULD YOUR BABY WEIGH AND
MEASURE?—TESTING THE BABY’S MENTAL
DEVELOPMENT—HOW SOON SHOULD THE
BABY WALK AND TALK?—CRYING, CAUSE
AND CURE
CHAPTER XI
BABY-COMFORT THROUGH CLOTHES 151
TIGHT BELLY-BANDS MAY TORTURE BABIES—UNDERWEAR
THAT DOES NOT IRRITATE—EXTENSION
SKIRTS TO PROTECT THE FEET—DRESSING
THE BABY IN HOT WEATHER—HOW
TO HANDLE THE BABY
CHAPTER XII
DEFECTS AND HABITS 168
TAKING DEFECTS IN TIME—HABITS THAT
MAKE CHILDREN UGLY—FINGER-SUCKING
AND NAIL-BITING—BED-WETTING—VICIOUS
HABITS AND THEIR CURE—NERVOUSNESS
AND ITS TREATMENT—THE HABIT OF HAPPINESS
CHAPTER XIII
BABY’S AILMENTS AND HOW TO TREAT
THEM 182
MOTHERS NOW STUDYING PREVENTIVE MEDICINE—REMEDIES
WHICH SHOULD BE FOUND
IN EVERY NURSERY—TREATMENT OF DIARRHEA
AND CONSTIPATION—COLDS AND THEIR
CURE—ADENOIDS AND THEIR REMOVAL—AILMENTS
OF THE SKIN
CHAPTER XIV
NURSERY EMERGENCIES 202
CONTAGIOUS DISEASES: SYMPTOMS, TREATMENT
AND QUARANTINE—CROUP AND ITS
TREATMENT—CONVULSIONS—WHEN FALLS
ARE DANGEROUS—BURNS AND CUTS—POISONS
AND THEIR ANTIDOTES
CHAPTER XV
DIET FOR OLDER CHILDREN 224
MILK FOR GROWING CHILDREN—EGGS, MEAT
AND FISH—BREADSTUFFS AND CEREALS—RECIPES
FOR NOURISHING DISHES
BETTER BABIES
AND THEIR CARE
BETTER BABIES AND THEIR CARE
CHAPTER I
PREPARATION FOR MOTHERHOOD
MOTHERHOOD A PROFESSION WHICH REQUIRES TRAINING—PRENATAL INFLUENCE AND
HYGIENE—MATERNITY CLOTHES
Maternity is woman’s exclusive profession, the only one of which
progress and science cannot rob her. It is also her highest
profession, for, compared to motherhood, art and science dwindle into
insignificance.
Successful motherhood, like genius in any art or profession, is founded
on efficiency and joy in the chosen work, and the greater of these is
joy. She who is merely efficient can reduce the mountains which rise in
the pathway of the mother; joy in motherhood can remove them. For joy
casts out doubt, fear, and all sense of burden. The woman who finds joy
in maternity is absolute mistress of the domestic and social situation.
Through it she commands the love and reverence of the husband to
whose eyes she has opened the wonders and the mysteries of parenthood.
For her the doors of the divorce court never yawn. For her motherhood
entails no sacrifice. She has no regrets for a career cut short by
marriage, because she finds in maternity the same supreme satisfaction
of accomplishment which comes to the successful lawyer, financier,
writer or artist.
Motherhood, like any other profession, requires preparation. For many
generations the world has held that the maternal instinct and the
ability to rear children were born in woman. It has been discovered
that the maternal instinct, like many others, needs encouragement,
while the ability to bring up children requires development or
practical training. The phrase, “a born mother,” has rather fallen
into disrepute. We are beginning to realize that one “born mother”
in a thousand is not enough to leaven the maternal mass. And out of
this discovery has risen a demand, which comes largely from women
themselves, for education in motherhood, practical, sincere preparation
for woman’s exclusive profession.
Perhaps the day will come when each college for women will have its
endowed chair of motherhood, when the care and feeding of infants will
be taught in our normal and high schools for girls. At present, certain
colleges offer a course in psychology which prepares young women to
guide, mentally and spiritually, the children they will some day bear.
In a few city schools, particularly in the congested districts, girls
are now taught how to bathe, dress and feed infants, largely for the
purpose of having the message of sanitation and hygiene carried home to
the tenement house mother.
Until these two forms of training for motherhood are combined, the
American girl must enter the profession of maternity without the sort
of practical preparation which will insure efficiency and joy in her
chosen work. What knowledge she now possesses is a smattering of what
her mother has learned by experience, what the family physician imparts
at odd moments, what she reads in books or magazine articles, and what
she hears at lectures where a few valiant souls proclaim motherhood as
a profession which requires the most thorough of training.
Preparation for motherhood must rise above the practical instruction
in the care and feeding of infants which leads to efficiency. It
requires a certain mental and spiritual adjustment of the woman to the
environment and conditions of maternity. She who is obsessed by the
fear of physical suffering which motherhood may entail, who regards the
coming of a child as the end of her individual career, her social life,
her personal pleasures, will be neither efficient nor joyous. Fear and
doubt come between her and success. They even threaten her health.
Therefore, the first step in preparation for motherhood is the firm
belief that it is a privilege, not a duty; a joy, not a sacrifice; an
investment that will pay big dividends. Thus armored, the prospective
mother enters upon the nine months of pregnancy insured against anxiety
and ill-health. The joy she finds in carrying her child provides a
splendid foundation for the child’s health. The woman who frets brings
forth a nervous child. The woman who rebels generally bears a morbid
child.
Science wrangles over the rival importance of heredity and environment,
but we women _know_ what effects prenatal influence works in children.
And, knowing this, what a mystery that we do not mold each thought and
act in the interest of the children whose up-bringing will be our real
life-work! How strange that mothers do not realize that the burden of
maternal and domestic duties can be lightened by prenatal care and
character molding.
Science has done much for the modern mother. It has lessened the danger
and the pains of childbirth. The once dreaded child-bed fever is now
practically unknown. Disinfectants and sanitary care have reduced this
danger to a minimum. Anæsthetics have reduced the strain and pain of
labor. Physicians no longer withhold the anæsthetic until the hour
when instruments or an operation make its use necessary; through
the later stages of ordinary labor, the modern physician offers the
alleviation of chloroform, and the mother comes through the ordeal with
one-fourth the pain endured by her mother and grandmother.
Modern ingenuity also designs many comforts for the prospective mother,
not the least of which is maternity raiment, including corsets and
adjustable gowns. Why do not women avail themselves of all these aids?
Largely because they are not educated for motherhood.
Medical science, through sanitation and hygiene, has lightened the
mother’s burden in rearing her baby. It has proved beyond doubt that
the child raised under sanitary and hygienic conditions, fed, bathed
and clothed properly and trained to regular habits, can escape most of
the ailments which were once counted as almost normal manifestations of
the child’s growth.
Many of us can recall the day when a colicky baby was considered a
dispensation of Providence, not a proof of maternal ignorance or
carelessness; when convulsions during teething were regarded as
“natural”; when “summer complaint” was accepted as a normal feature
of baby’s second summer; when children were actually exposed to
whooping-cough, measles and chicken-pox, so they would have these
juvenile ailments and be done with them!
To-day, unless a baby is born with some inherited weakness or chronic
disease, science teaches how to protect the child from ordinary
ailments—colic, convulsions, summer complaint, and contagious diseases.
This is the day of preventive medicine, particularly in the care of
infants. Prevention lightens the burden of motherhood. When young women
are trained to ward off illness in children, not to nurse them through
illness, motherhood will mean what it should mean to women—Joy.
Start your maternal career right by preparing your body and your mind
for motherhood. Start your baby right in life by studying sanitation,
hygiene, the care and feeding of infants. Know your business as a
mother, and motherhood will have no terrors for you.
Remember that your own physical condition and the health of the baby
you will bring into the world depend largely upon your mental attitude.
Cast out all fear of childbirth and all dread of maternal duties and
sacrifices. Fretting, grieving, or rebellion will not purchase immunity
from maternal duties. Rather it will increase them. The child will be
born and laid in your arms to be fed, cared for, and reared, whether
you weep or smile through the months of pregnancy. Self-control,
cheerfulness and love for the little life breathing in unison with your
own will practically insure you a child of normal physique and nerves.
Physicians and scientists may regard stories of prenatal influence
which float through open nursery doors as “old women’s tales”; but we
women who have borne children know the price babies pay for maternal
self-indulgence, mental abnormalities, bitterness, hysteria.
I recall one woman of my acquaintance whose self-consciousness amounted
to an affliction. She was super-sensitive, self-effacing, apologetic,
always afraid that she was not wanted. One day when speaking of her
futile efforts to correct the tendency, she explained that she had been
an unwelcome child. Her mother had rebelled throughout the period of
pregnancy. She had nursed her child in bitterness of spirit. Later in
life she learned to cling to her daughter for companionship as well as
material care, but the girl never outgrew those unfortunate prenatal
influences.
Another girl, sixth in the family, was carried and nursed by her mother
through times of financial stress, when one more mouth to fill was a
hardship. As soon as the child could toddle, she developed a passion
for running away. She grew up absolutely devoid of family instinct,
filial affection and womanly sense of responsibility. While very young,
she eloped with her first suitor, rather than remain under the parental
roof. She was never dishonest or immoral, but she was born hating her
home and indifferent to her parents.
Still sadder is the case of a mother who gave way to hysteria and
hideous paroxysms of anger throughout the period of pregnancy. Though
physically sound herself and married to a man without taint, this woman
brought into the world a child who never developed mentally beyond her
second year. To-day this mother, now a self-supporting widow, never
leaves the institute for feeble-minded children, where her daughter is
safest and happiest, without the throbbing thought, “Why did no one
warn me of what I was doing to my child?”
On the other hand, when maternity is accepted as a privilege, and
love instead of bitterness reigns in the prospective mother’s heart,
the babe is born tranquil, normal, healthy. Returning to the phrase,
efficiency in motherhood, it is good business to bear normal children.
In this day, the woman who frets, rebels and weeps during pregnancy
commands little sympathy and practical help from her husband and
family. But there is something fine and inspiring about the woman who
firmly, cheerfully demands for herself and the child she is carrying
the best that domestic conditions and environment afford. She becomes
an heroic figure, fulfilling her highest duty to society, and demanding
just toll. Men bow to this attitude when they flee hysterics and
turn deaf ears to angry complaints. And no woman should disregard the
importance of moral support and sympathy on the part of her husband.
To guard her own health and that of the child, the expectant mother
must give careful attention to three things: diet, rest, exercise.
Upon the diet will depend largely the proper nourishment of two lives
instead of one. Each woman is a law unto herself in diet, and should
make an earnest study of her food-needs and the effect of foods
upon her digestive and nervous system. No cut-and-dried diet can be
prescribed for the pregnant woman, because what agrees with one woman
may disagree with another.
Generally speaking, however, the diet should include a large proportion
of liquids, fresh fruits and vegetables, with a small proportion of
meats and practically no rich or highly spiced desserts. Excesses of
any sort should be avoided.
Liquid food is important because it encourages the system to throw
off impurities through the bowels, kidneys and skin. From two to
three quarts of liquid should be drunk daily, particularly cool, pure
water. An excellent plan is to drink one glass at rising, two between
breakfast and dinner, two more between dinner and supper, and one
before retiring—six in all. Water should not be drunk with meals. Milk,
cocoa, chocolate, clear broths and buttermilk are excellent beverages,
but both tea and coffee should be taken sparingly, and alcoholic
drinks should be avoided. Nothing will be gained by forcing yourself
to drink any of these liquids if they nauseate you or fail to digest
easily. If milk, the most important of beverages to the expectant
mother, is palatable but causes constipation, laxative foods can be
used to correct this tendency.
Meat should be eaten once a day. Poultry and lamb are given the
preference by dietitians. Beef is better than veal; pork is difficult
to digest under any condition; and meat stewed until tender in a milk
or cream sauce is more easily digested than fried meat. Smoked meat is
not particularly nourishing to mother or child, but crisp ham and bacon
are useful in whetting a failing appetite. Fish, oysters, and eggs may
be used to vary the diet, but they do not replace meat.
Fruits and vegetables should be eaten freely. Fresh fruits, including
apples, peaches, pears, oranges, grapes, shredded pineapple,
grape-fruit, plums, strawberries, raspberries, and huckleberries,
should be used regularly in season. When they are not to be had, stewed
fruits—apples, prunes, rhubarb, peaches, figs, etc.—may be substituted.
When dried fruits are used, they must be soaked well and cooked
thoroughly.
The most desirable vegetables are young onions, asparagus, peas,
potatoes, lima and string beans, carrots, spinach, celery, lettuce and
romaine. Heavier vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower, baked beans,
beets, turnips and radishes are not so easily digested and should be
eaten sparingly.
Salads made with olive oil dressing are an important item in the diet
of the prospective mother. Many dietitians urge that fresh salad be
eaten at least once a day.
Particular attention must be paid to the effect of cooked and prepared
cereals on the digestion. Some women do not digest the heavier cereals,
like oatmeal, cracked wheat, cornmeal, while patent foods of a lighter
nature agree with them. In this case, the mother who “hates cereals”
will do well to try some of the light patented foods, with cream and
sugar or fruit, and train herself gradually to enjoy a cereal course
with at least one meal a day. The coarser breads, such as whole wheat,
graham, cornmeal and bran, are recommended for prospective mothers who
suffer from constipation, indigestion or heartburn.
The woman who feels an inordinate craving for certain articles of diet,
such as pickles, lemons, candy, etc., should exercise judgment and
self-control. Like any other habit, extremes in diet will grow upon a
woman until they really endanger her health. Their indulgence will in
no way lighten the burdens of pregnancy. Considerable acid is supplied
in salads and fruits; and a limited amount of sweet pickle, catsups and
other modern condiments may be taken with meals.
Custards, gelatines, sponge cake, light desserts made with fruit, and
ice-cream are desirable sweets.
Rest and normal sleep, alternating with healthful exercise which does
not exhaust the system, are vitally important to both mother and child.
Eight hours’ sleep each night is a good average, and to insure normal
sleep the prospective mother should be made as comfortable as possible.
I have known mothers who, at this time, suffered torture if they shared
a bed or even a room with other members of their family, and yet they
denied themselves the important privilege of privacy. The expectant
mother should sleep in the environment and atmosphere most conducive
to perfect rest. Her bedding should be light but warm in cold weather.
The room should be properly ventilated, with the window open top and
bottom. No gas jet or lamp should burn in this room during the night.
In cold weather a very simple way to insure comfort and prompt dropping
off to sleep is to lay a hot water bag, covered with flannel, between
the sheets. The pregnant woman should never suffer from chill or
dampness.
The mental attitude of the expectant mother just before retiring is an
important factor in insuring sleep. Family disputes, even discussions
on impersonal problems, should be avoided. The woman engaged in a wordy
argument on religion, politics, or any social question may go to bed
so excited that she will go over and over the discussion when, for the
sake of herself and her unborn child, she should be sleeping.
Neither should she go to bed hungry. A glass of milk, warm if it can be
taken that way, cocoa, broth or gruel is a sleep coaxer, but no tea,
coffee, or any other stimulant should be drunk just before bedtime.
In addition to regular sleep at night, the prospective mother should
have at least one nap during the day, at a time which will least
interfere with her household duties. A mother who has borne six
children, who has had little domestic help, and who yet retains her
youthful look and energy, has often told me that she thinks her present
condition due to the fact that while carrying and nursing her babies
she never permitted herself to reach that stage of exhaustion where her
nerves twitched, her voice shrilled, and she became irritable. She made
it a practice to drop her work when these symptoms appeared, and to
seek the sanctuary of a quiet room apart from her family, if only for
ten or fifteen minutes. And, most important, from the very start she
trained her household to respect her right thus to draw apart.
Exercise for the pregnant woman should mean more than muscular
activity. It should represent change of scene and thought, relaxation
and recreation. The best form of exercise is walking for walking’s
sake. This does not mean shopping or walking a few blocks to the home
of a friend and then sitting down for a half hour or more of gossip.
It means going out into God’s fresh air with one’s eyes open to the
beauties of nature or the human drama through which the walk leads. On
the other hand, the woman who has led a sedentary life should not walk
too violently at first. Let her start with a half hour’s walk each day
and increase it gradually until she spends at least two hours outdoors
daily.
The woman who lives in a small city, a suburb, a country town, or on
a farm, is singularly fortunate, as she will find light gardening the
very best form of exercise.
In the side yard of a charming home where I often visit there
is a flower-bed for each child born into the family circle. One
year the mother laid out, planted and coaxed to bloom a border of
lilies-of-the-valley; at another time she started her violet bed; a
third child is represented by a wonderful circle of tulips and the
fourth by an arbor of rambler roses. I often wonder whether the fine,
flower-like natures of the girls in this family cannot be traced to the
mother’s tranquil work in the garden.
Raising chickens, ducks, or pigeons will also take the expectant mother
outdoors and provide pleasant recreation.
The woman who, through her girlhood, has been keen for athletic sports,
such as tennis, golf, skating, and motoring, must curb these forms of
recreation. Fully ninety per cent. of the physicians with whom I have
discussed the question condemn constant motoring for the expectant
mother. To employ the automobile as a transportation convenience is one
thing; to take long, tiring rides or tours is positively dangerous for
the pregnant woman, as it invites miscarriage.
Household duties exercise the muscles and are invaluable if performed
in properly ventilated rooms. Unfortunately, however, many prospective
mothers sacrifice their own health and that of their unborn children
on the altar of domestic neatness. During pregnancy a woman should
simplify her household management, even if this step involves packing
away bric-à-brac and rolling up rugs.
This is no time for a woman to be self-sacrificing, and yet it often
amounts to an obsession with her. I have seen such mothers performing
heavy household duties, which other members of their family would
gladly have assumed. I have seen them strain muscles and eyesight to
embroider or trim raiment for the older children, and I have seen
them carefully select the choicest bits of food at table for husband
or growing child, when the mother should have, for her own health and
that of her unborn child, the very best which the family purse can
afford. This spirit of martyrdom may give a certain amount of mental
satisfaction to the woman who practises it, but it is harmful to the
unborn child and is really a symptom of mental disturbance not to be
encouraged.
The actual physical comfort of the mother means much to the child. If
there is any time when a woman has the right to allow herself time to
care for her body, money to purchase easy clothes and small personal
luxuries, it is when she is carrying a child. Bathing is a luxury which
many overworked home-makers deny themselves. The expectant mother
should _make_ time to take a daily bath. If there is a stationary tub
in the house, this bath may be of the sort which is most comforting
to her: a tepid bath before retiring or a cool bath on rising. When
there are no bath and plumbing in the house, the mother should have
a portable tub in her room, in which she can sponge off quickly with
tepid water, followed by brisk rubbing with a Turkish towel. A warm
bath with soap should be taken twice a week, but very hot or very cold
baths must be avoided. Bathing is important because it keeps the pores
of the skin open. It is estimated that at least a pint of waste matter
is thrown off each twenty-four hours through open pores. There is
danger for mother and child if this waste matter is permitted to clog
the former’s system.
The mission of maternity clothing is to make the mother comfortable.
For that reason experts are beginning to design raiment that is both
comforting to the body and pleasing to the eye. The woman who has
never worn flannels should not don them during pregnancy. They merely
produce irritation which she should be spared. Union undergarments,
with or without sleeves, come in cotton as well as wool, and are much
better than the separate garments with bands. Particularly comforting
are the maternity corsets, made largely of elastic. These have the side
garters; no round leg garters should be worn. One-piece dresses with
a drop skirt save the expectant mother another set of bands. All the
clothing should be loose and easy, and it is well for the expectant
mother to buy stockings, shoes and even gloves in a size larger than
she ordinarily wears. Pressure on any part of the body affects the
circulation and heart action of the pregnant woman. Patterns for
maternity garments can be purchased at the agencies for all reliable
pattern firms, and they deserve the consideration of the expectant
mother who will suffer if she attempts to wear the clothing made for
her use under ordinary conditions.
The teeth should be especially guarded during pregnancy. They should be
examined at regular intervals by the family dentist, and small cavities
promptly filled. Both physicians and dentists claim that the teeth
are extremely susceptible to decay during pregnancy for two reasons:
first, because the mother’s system is drained of the lime salts which
go to build up the bones of the child; second, because, as pregnancy
progresses, acids are often retained in the system, and these, together
with slight indigestion, affect the teeth.
The breasts should be carefully watched, especially toward the end
of pregnancy. The family physician should make an examination and
see whether they require any special treatment. The nipples may be
toughened by bathing them at bedtime and then covering them with
lanolin and old linen or gauze. This prenatal care of the breasts and
nipples may prevent great suffering immediately after the birth of the
child.
“All this is very well,” exclaims a busy home-maker, “but to follow
this régime I must rearrange our entire scheme of living.”
If this is true, then, indeed, motherhood will bring to that home a
double blessing, for the life outlined in this chapter is a normal one,
as good for the childless wife as for the expectant mother. And here is
a case in point:
Among the prize-winning children at a Better Babies Contest on
the Pacific Coast was a little boy, born of the type of woman
commonly known as “delicate.” Throughout her girlhood she had been
a semi-invalid. Her husband’s friends shook their heads when the
engagement was announced. The first year of their married life was
marked by frequent illnesses for the wife. When she learned that she
was to become a mother, she was suddenly alarmed for the future of her
child. She made an earnest study of how to reform her own life so that
her child might be spared the ailments from which she suffered. She
chose a normal, nourishing diet, and persisted in it. She gradually
learned to take and enjoy outdoor exercise. She had a small porch
converted into an outdoor sleeping-room. As a result—her labor was
easy and natural, her child healthy, normal and good-tempered. Her own
health was rehabilitated. She has never reverted to her former state of
semi-invalidism.