Lactation

“ There are well-authenticated instances of mothers having suckled their children for three, four, five, and even seven consecutive years; we ourselves have known cases of lactation being prolonged far three and for four years, with the happiest results. ”

“ The degree to which lactation hinders conception is so widely known, that women often suckle their infant for a very long period, with the definite aim of preventing the speedy recurrence of pregnancy. ”

“ If the mother enjoy good health, and the process be not continued too long, it is likely to produce beneficial effects both in herself and her infant; but if she be of a very delicate habit—labour under any dangerous disease—be subject during the period of lactation to great affliction, or constant mental [Pg 15] inquietude—or should the periodical appearance return, pregnancy occur, or suckling be continued too long, it may not only prove highly detrimental to herself, but may be the means of occasioning serious or fatal consequences to her child. ”

“ They themselves say, and with truth, that what they eat goes to milk. They become thinner and paler, are perhaps troubled with palpitation, and are easily exhausted. They often find it necessary to wean before the end of the usual period of lactation. There is another class whose health is habitually poor, but who furnish the usual quantity of milk without the exhaustion experienced by the class just described. The milk of these women is of poor quality. ”

“ No sooner has the child been ushered into the world than the breasts of the mother pour forth their milk for its sustenance. This bland fluid is secreted from the blood, and varies, in quality and quantity, according to the time which has elapsed from delivery, being peculiarly and wonderfully adapted at every period to the wants of the individual for whose use it is destined. ”

“ Violent affections of the mind will cause the milk to become thin and yellowish, and to acquire noxious properties: even the fond mother's anxiety, while hanging over the couch of her sick infant, will be sufficient to render it unfit for the sustenance of the object of her solicitude.
The state also of the stomach and bowels and the diet of the nurse materially and constantly influence the nature of the lacteal secretion. ”

“ Besides which, we shall find that when from any cause whatever the nurse's milk becomes impoverished and deteriorated, even if this take place at an early period after delivery, the injurious effects already referred to may be produced in the child: for improper food, whether it be bad milk or any other inappropriate article of diet, is always calculated to derange the functions of the stomach, bowels, and other chylopoietic viscera, and in consequence to occasion disease. ”

“ The milk, besides, is liable to deterioration from another cause, namely, the recurrence of the usual periodical appearance—for should this take place in a nurse, it is agreed that her milk is liable to produce disorders in the child who imbibes it; which could not happen, if the former possessed its ordinary component parts, and retained its natural properties.
The recurrence, moreover, of pregnancy in [Pg 4] the lactescent female may render the milk of a bad quality, and will invariably lessen its quantity. Mr. ”

“ When a woman, in the vigor of health, while nursing her own child at the breast, becomes again pregnant, her first knowledge of and attention to this fact frequently arise from the effects of her milk upon her nursing babe. Sometimes the child grows meagre, pallid, is evidently not thriving; occasionally has spasms from apparent indigestion; at others, it is often nauseated, and ejects the curdled milk, with or without accompanying diarrhoea. The child is withdrawn from the breast, proper food is substituted, and a manifest improvement commences immediately. ”

“ The formation of the fœtus, the manner of its existence, and the growth of its parts, are great secrets of nature; and in all viviparous animals, the milk found in the female parent is a maintenance ready for the young animal, the moment it enters the world. We have here, the nutritious quality of the fluid—the organ for its reception and retention—the excretory duct, annexed to that organ—and the determination of the milk to the breast, at the particular juncture when it is about to be wanted. The advanced pregnancy of the female has no intelligible tendency to fill the breasts with milk. ”

“ Fourth Month.—If the mother is nursing her baby, it is a good plan now to teach him how to use the bottle. Some doctors advise one bottle feeding each day from the start, for, should the mother's milk suddenly fail, or should she be obliged to stop nursing for any reason, there will be no struggle, which would be very hard for the baby if it happened in hot weather. Also the gradual accustoming of the digestive organs to the cow's milk before weaning must be commenced and does away in some degree, at least, with the danger from indigestion from the cow's milk given regularly. ”

“ Every bit of breast milk helps the baby, because it tends to make the digestion of artificial food easier.
Advice to nursing mothers. Keep yourself well. As long as you are well the [42] baby will keep well. Even though you have but little milk at first, do not get discouraged; be patient and persevering. You should have lunches of milk and gruel—one in the middle of the morning, one in the afternoon, and another at bedtime. Remember that an active, cheerful mind is an important factor in good health. Nothing upsets a baby more quickly than a nervous, irritable mother.
Diet of a nursing woman. ”

“ Unfortunately for the infant, however, it frequently happens that after weaning, and if it has been nursed by a healthy mother, or other wet nurse, being well fed on two or three pints of wholesome milk, daily, its food supply is reduced by substitution of one kind or another, more or less devoid of essential elements, with the common result of emaciation and tenderness, and increased liability to sickness. ”

“ Those flabby and delicate women, therefore, who do not nurse their own children, but give them up to the breast of another, consult their health indifferently; for mercenary nurses being for the major part of more robust and hardy frames, and their milk consequently thicker, more caseous, and difficult of digestion, it frequently happens that milk of this kind given to the infants of such parents, particularly during the time of teething, is not well borne, but gives rise to crudities and diarrhœas, to griping, vomiting, fever, epilepsy, and other formidable diseases of the like nature. ”

“ The lesson of practicable importance that we learn from this is that the milk of one of the lower animals is not in its natural state quite suited to the delicate stomach of the growing infant, and that if it be substituted for the mother's milk it must be more or less altered, depending upon the age of the child. It is particularly important that sweet milk be taken slowly, as otherwise large curds, difficult of digestion, form as soon as it gets into the stomach. ”

“ HYGIENE OF THE MOTHER.—Since the mammary glands manufacture their product from the constituents of the mother's blood and their activity is controlled by her nerves, it is clear that her physical condition and her state of mind will influence the secretion of milk. Intelligent women who understand this desire to know how they should live that they may best insure an ample supply of good milk. Fortunately the first important step toward success has been taken when a mother wishes to nurse her baby ”

“ OVER NURSING. Mothers who have a very large supply of milk are very likely to overfeed their babies if the milk is of good quality. This will drain the mother's strength. Some mothers allow their babies to nurse to relieve the uncomfortable feeling. If the infant vomits the surplus immediately they are not injured. Where the baby does not vomit, the surplus food passes into the bowels and causes colic and green and yellow gassy stools. If the mother's milk is too rich, only, and not too much and the baby vomits, this can be corrected by giving the baby some boiled water before each meal. ”

“ The very thought of the precious little creature being hungry terrifies her, and she accepts the advice of an untrained nurse or a fussy neighbor to give him sweetened water, or diluted and sweetened cow’s milk. So the new baby starts life all wrong on artificial food, when the thin, watery fluid provided by nature is precisely what he needs at this time. Naturally, if he is fed artificially, he will not draw on [Pg 43] the breast, for he is not hungry, and so the flow of milk is discouraged. ”

“ If the vomiting occurs some time after nursing and is repeated, it is a sign of indigestion; often because the milk is too rich in fat. The intervals between nursings should then be lengthened; the breast milk may be diluted by giving one or two tablespoonfuls of plain boiled water, lime-water, or barley-water, five or ten minutes before nursing; the mother should eat less hearty food, especially less meat.
What should be done if the infant has frequent or habitual colic? ”

“ The contents of the stomach, too, at first are milky, a coagulation of fluid; then the same coagulated substance is changed into blood; but when it is formed into a compact consistency in the womb, by the natural and warm spirit by which the embryo is fashioned, it becomes a living creature. Further also, the child after birth is nourished by the same blood. For the flow of milk is the product of the blood; and the source of nourishment is the milk; by which a woman is shown to have brought forth a child, and to be truly a mother, by which also she receives a potent charm of affection. ”

“ The attitude of mind of a woman toward her milk supply is important, as the flow of milk is closely subject to mental influence. The presence of the child and the consequent exercise of maternal instinct does more to bring about the prompt, healthy flow of milk than anything else. Sometimes women in the later months of their first pregnancy upon seeing a mother nursing her child have felt the flow of milk to their breasts not rarely with such painful overdistention of the milk ducts as to require artificial relief. ”

“ If they be very large, the child's mouth being very small, he may not be able to hold them. You must note, too, whether the milk flows readily from the nipple into the child's mouth; if it does not, he may not have strength to draw it, and he would soon die of starvation. The only way of ascertaining whether the infant really draws the milk from the nipple, can be done by examining the mouth of the child immediately after his taking the breast, and seeing for yourself whether there be actually milk, or not, in his mouth. ”

“ The new-born infant requires only the mother's milk. The true mother will nurse her child if it is a possibility. The infant will thrive better and have many more chances for life.
2. The mother's milk is the natural food, and nothing can fully take its place. It needs no feeding for the first few days as it was commonly deemed necessary a few years ago. The secretions in the mother's breast are sufficient. ”

“ The milk of the parent ought, in every instance, to constitute the food of the infant, unless some very urgent reason prevents the mother from suckling, or renders her milk improper for the child. There is always a relation between the condition and constitution of the mother, and the age and constitution of the infant, which renders this proper, and which cannot exist between the child and any other nurse, but which exercises an important influence on its nutrition. ”

“ A favorable frame of mind and state of good nutrition in the mother are the two indispensable factors in establishing breast-feeding and in maintaining the secretion of an adequate supply of breast-milk. These conditions, in turn, are both affected by her general mode of living, as long as the baby nurses.
Women with happy, cheerful dispositions usually nurse their babies satisfactorily, while those who worry and fret are likely to have an insufficient supply of milk, or milk of a poor quality. ”

“ For three or four days it was a question whether the little one would live, for so greatly had it been reduced by the looseness of the bowels that it had not strength to grasp the nipple of its nurse; the milk, therefore, was obliged to be drawn, and the child fed with it from a spoon. After the lapse of a few days, however, it could obtain the breast-milk for itself ”

“ This can be done, first, through the mother’s diet—simpler food, less meat, no alcohol; second, just before nursing, the baby may be given an ounce of boiled water in which one-fourth teaspoonful of malt sugar has been dissolved, using an ordinary nursing bottle with a plain nipple. The child will then nurse a shorter time and the water taken from the bottle will dilute the milk drawn from the breast. The first few ounces drawn from the breast are less rich than the last ones; so if the child does not drain the breast, he does not get the richest part of the milk. ”

“ Feeding the baby whenever he cries produces indigestion, colic, irritability, self-indulgence.
Ten to fifteen minutes is the usual duration of a feeding. The first milk is thinner, the latter part of the nursing richer. Generally one breast is taken at a feeding, the other breast at the succeeding feeding; if the quantity in one is insufficient, both may be used at one feeding. Neither the mother nor the baby should go to sleep during the nursing. If the baby dawdles, the food may be taken away until the next time. He should stop a minute at the end of each five minutes, to rest and breathe. ”