Milford chronicle., 1963-04-19
YoUf Hospital
BY Your Hospital Reporter

1dSL1C dDOul Tie new IOCkuIB
chairs In the newborn nursery at |
Milford Memorial Hospital. Some |
Of the parents, however, show
less enthusiasm, remarking,
"You are spelling my baby"
Many years ago, when no one |
was interested In telling her how
to care for her baby, the mother
could enjoy cuddling and rock
ing him without the slightest feel
ing Of guilt. Rocking was sanc-
toned by society.
The industrial revolution To-
cused attention on children and
their welfare. AS a result of
this, people became interested
in child labor, child behavior,
and child rearing. So called auth
critics began advising mothers
about the proper way to rear
their young. Thus began the
ozark Era" of child care which
lasted from about 1915 to 1940.
During this period, psychologists
expounded on what they called
the Scientific Method of Child
Rearing" Almost all physical
contact with the infant was frown-
ed upon. Rocking, cuddling, kiss
ing the baby; these were all ta-
boo. An example IF how far away
from naturalism the pendulum
had swung is the following quota
tton from one of the leading
psychologists Of the 1920's, John
B. Watson; "There is a sensible
way of treating children. Threat
them as though they were young
adults. Let your behavior always
be objective and kindly firm.
Never hug and kiss them, never
let them sit In your lap. Shake
hand with them In the morning. |
Try 1t out. In a weeks time
you will find how easy 1t is to
be prefectly objective with your
child. You will be utterly asham-
ed of the Mawkish, sentimental
way you have been handling it."
Obstetricians, pediatricians,
and nurses listened and subscrib-
ed to the new "Scientific" beliefs. |
And parents listened to the OBJ
stetricians, pediatricians, and
nurses and believed. The sad re-
suit of this for mothers was that
although they could accept intel
lectually that rocking was harm
full for the baby, they could not
accept this emotionally. They
continued to want to rock their
babies. If a mother yielded to
an overwhelming impusle, threw
caution to the wind, and sat down
In the rocking chair with her In
fant, she Immediately felt guilty. |
Later, she might begin to feel
that she had harmed the baby
permanently. Parents became
very self-conscious about their
dealings with their children. They
hesitated to do anything on i'm
pulse lest 1t be ''wrong" or
"harmful". The relationship be-
tween parent and child became
unnatural and one in which the
parent felt uncomfortable and Ill
at ease.
The mother must have felt ex-
tremely guilty about her Inability
to do what this period demanded
of her In the way of toilet train
ing. According to Beu1ah France
In her booklet, "Teaching Chill
dren Proper Bathroom Habits"
the mother was expected to be-
gin toilet training almost as soon
as the baby was born. Miss
France states, "At what age may
parents begin to teach good bath
room habits2 When the baby is a
few weeks old. Many doctors say
that there need be no soiled
diapers after the eighth week of
life. The younger the baby, the
more easy 1t will be to win
nature's cooperation"
The 1940'S began a new and
enlightened era. Thanks to the
psychologists and other re-
searchers who have been study
ing children the past twenty
five years, we now have a great
er knowledge of what children
are like and what is good for
them. We know, for instance,
that a gradual change is better
for the baby than an abrupt one
whether 1t is for the purpose of
weaving him from the breast to
the cup or from diapers totrain-
ing pants. We know that rock
ing helps make more bearable |
the change from the passive,
rocking motion within the moth
er's body to the stationary and
isolated crib. Mothers need no
longer feel guilty about rock
ing and cuddling their babies.
They can prove to themselves that
depriving the baby of the ex-
perience of passive motion is
depriving him of an essential
need. Science no longer believes
that everything that is fun for
the baby is bad for him. We
are happy to see the pendulum
swing In the other direction;
our rocking chairs will swing
along with 1t. And when anyone
questions us, we will say, "We
are rocking our babies scien-
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