The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1915-08-28

One OF the greatest StumDI1n BLOCKS
to the scientific care of children is
the popular notion regarding instinct
tive motherhood The average person
who sees the close communion be-
tween mother and babe; sees her in
stinctiVe1y caress it and luIl it into
quiet and comfort, reaches the con-
clusion that Mother Nature has planted
this instinct of motherhood in the
heart of every woman so that she
knows how to take care of her baby
without training.
The PHYSICAL act of maternity, the
giving birth to a child, cannot give q
woman the knowledge of how to care
for a child any more than the physi-
cal act OF paternity teaches a man
how to be a good father. The Great
ing of child does give parents their
instructive desire to want to care for
the child, but the "how" is another
matter
The mother instinctively places her
child at the breast, not infrequently
every time it cries. In that way, she
seriously upsets its digestion. In
stinct cannot teach her the proper
time and amount of nursing Only
training and experience can do that.
Instinctively, the mother wants to
make her baby comfortable, to keep
it clean, protect it from the weather,
etc. Instinctively, many young
mothers swathe their helpless infants
in layers of wool in hot weather be-
cause they've sometime heard that
wool garments were proper for babies.
So they nearly smother the life out
of the little thing until it is rescued
by some one who has had training or
experience.
And so on through the whole Of the
problem of baby care Instinct
prompts the desire to care for the
child, but knowledge and not instinct
is going to show her how.
Again the popular notions as to
what experience in raising babies is,
generally are erroneous. For example,
one frequently hears that the advice
of the doctor or the nurse is lightly
regarded because this particular one
did not happen to be married and
have children of his or her own. The
word of a neighbor woman who has
raised" six or seven or has buried"
that number, as the case may be, is
taken in preference.
No one would want to discount the
word Or the experience of a success
full mother, but where she has had ex-
perience with nine or ten or maybe
nineteen or twenty, the doctor and
nurse, if they have had any practice
at all with children, can number their
cases by the hundred. In addition,
they have in their libraries the record
ed experience Of thousands of cases.
Consequently, so far as the matter
of experience goes, the doctors expo
rience is far ahead of the experience
of the individual mother In addition,
the doctor has such training as en-
ables him to recognize any change
from the normal in children and to
determine the cause. The mother
may know that Johnnie isn't looking
well today" and after several
experiences with Johnnie, she learns
that it follows feeding him something
that disagrees with him. And so
forth, for all of Johnnie's other little
ailments.
The result of this rule of thumb and
the haphazard gaining of experience
by young mothers has been so dis
astrous to the child, that scientists
are now investigating the causes of
the apparent deficiencies of first born
children. That the second and third
children seem to be stronger and bet
ter then the Oldest is attributed to
the fact that the first born had to suf-
fer the result q his mothers lack of
knowledge and also that she gained
her experience by experimenting on
him.
Although such experience may be
invaluable to the mother, yet it is
purchased at too great a cost, espe-
cially when in so very many cases it
costs the life of her baby.
The remedy is simple Let every
mother and prospective mother gain
her knowledge of the care of babies
under the tutelage and the guiding
hand of those who are qualified and
competent to teach her. This alone
will save thousands of baby lives
every year and make for more able
mothers and better and happier chill
dren