The Nursing Mother : Part 4

The Prospective Mother: A Handbook for Women During Pregnancy
by J. Morris Slemons

(Page 16 of 18)

It is unfortunate that current beliefs throw many restrictions about nursing-mothers which are unreasonable and unsupported by scientific investigation. There was a time when mothers did not question their ability to nurse, they assumed this duty as a matter of course. Indeed, they were compelled to do so, since refined methods of artificial feeding had not as yet been devised. Among the agricultural class, even to-day, it is exceptional for mothers to fail to nurse their children, if they are provided with the ordinary comforts of life. But women who live at the higher tension of city life are frequently unsuccessful, because they are more inclined to be nervous or because they disregard, among other things, the need of fresh air, plain food, or regular habits. It is wrong to suppose that elaborate rules of conduct are necessary for nursing mothers; the instruction they require is simple and scarcely different from that to be given anyone who desires good health. If she lead a wholesome existence a woman will not only nurse her child successfully but will gain in strength.

Diet. - In manufacturing centers, where a large proportion of the women are employed in confining work, the percentage of mothers who are able to nurse their children is exceedingly small; consequently the infant mortality is very high. Better nourishment for the mother, it has seemed, would render her more capable of successful lactation, and would decrease or even eliminate badly executed artificial feeding, and would therefore reduce the death rate among the babies. In a few foreign cities the idea has been put into practice. Free restaurants have been established for working mothers, and they have thus been enabled to perform their maternal duties much more successfully. Incidentally it has been shown that nourishment may be supplied mother and infant at a smaller cost than proper artificial food for the infant alone.

The quantity of nourishment required by nursing mothers is not so large as might be expected, and in many instances it is over-feeding rather than under-feeding that must be guarded against. Very accurate observations have been made which indicate that during the early weeks of nursing no more food is needed than at other times; in all probability this remains true throughout the whole period of lactation. Over-eating, as many of us know, is a frequent cause of indigestion. It is of the first importance, therefore, that nursing mothers should not take more food than they can assimilate, for indigestion will provoke disturbances in the milk which in turn will make the baby uncomfortable. For a similar reason mothers should have their meals at regular intervals.

As a rule the appetite is a reliable guide not only as to how much to eat, but also as to the choice of food, for without exception what is good for the mother is good also for the child. Generally the diet should be a mixed one, consisting of milk, gruels, soups, vegetables, bread, and meat. In order that monotony may not dull the appetite, no one article of food should be employed continuously. With this exception food should be selected with regard only for its wholesomeness and digestibility. All food is milk-making food; no sharp distinctions between the various kinds can be recognized. Milk, because it contains all the elements necessary for perfect nutrition, is particularly wholesome. Water also, since it forms such a large proportion of their milk, should be taken freely by nursing mothers. Generally it proves advantageous to take milk or some other nutritious drink between meals and again before retiring at night, but the danger of ruining in this way the appetite for solid food must not be overlooked.

It ought to be unnecessary to say that a nursing mother should deny herself any article of food, no matter how much she may want it, if she knows it will disagree with her; but she must remember also that the same article of food will not necessarily disagree with other mothers. Generalizations of this kind are largely responsible for the wrongful tendency to reject from the dietary many altogether harmless articles. There would be little left for a nursing mother to eat if she avoided every article of food which one person or another assures her will damage her milk.

No belief regarding what a nursing mother should eat is held more widely, I suppose, than that she should abstain from salads, tomatoes, and fruits which contain acid. This view is erroneous. The very idea upon which it is based is incorrect, since acids are neutralized as soon as they pass from the stomach to the intestines and cannot enter the milk. With certain persons some varieties of fruit invariably cause indigestion. Lactation does not correct such an individual peculiarity, and a nursing mother who knows she possesses it will act accordingly. Occasionally those who have no such idiosyncrasy worry after they have eaten something which contains an acid because they have heard it will do harm. In such cases it is the mental state of the woman which disturbs her milk and upsets the baby. With the exception of those who have such an idiosyncrasy and those inclined to worry, nursing mothers may partake of fruits and salads with impunity.

There are vegetables, of which the onion and turnip are good examples, that contain ingredients that find their way unaltered into the milk. So long as these do not disturb the mother their presence has no unfavorable influence upon the child. Similarly a number of substances appear in the milk when administered as medicine to the mother. In one way this is fortunate, for under certain circumstances it provides a very satisfactory method of treating unhealthy children without giving the medicine directly. In another respect, however, it is a disadvantage, for it sometimes interferes with giving the mother purgatives, which she may need. So far as possible, therefore, the taking of medicine should be limited during lactation, and certainly no drug should be employed without the advice of a physician.

Time and again some drug, some beverage, usually one that contains alcohol, or some special article of food has been recommended as a means of increasing an inadequate secretion of milk, but thus far all attempts in this direction have failed of general application. There are at present on the market widely advertised preparations for which astounding efficiency is claimed. None of them, however, has a definite or consistent value; and it is unfortunately true that no substance has yet been discovered that has the specific action of increasing the production of milk.