Woman, William J. Robinson [classic literature books txt] 📗

No Perfect Substitute for Mother's Milk—When Nursing is Injurious to Mother and Child—Modified Milk—Artificial Foods—Care Essential in Selecting Wet Nurse—Suckling Child Benefits Mother—Reciprocal Affection Strengthened by Nursing—Sexual Feelings While Nursing—Alcoholics are Injurious—Attention to Condition of Nipples During Pregnancy Essential—Treatment of Sunken Nipples—Treatment of Tender Nipples—Treatment of Cracked Nipples—How to Stop the Secretion of Milk When Necessary—Menstruation While Nursing—Pregnancy in the Nursing Woman.

Every mother should nurse her child—if she can. There is no perfect substitute for mother's milk. There is only one excuse for a mother not nursing—that is when she has no milk, or when the quality of the milk is so poor that the child does not thrive on it, or when the mother is run down, is threatened with or is suffering with tuberculosis, etc. In such cases the nursing would prove injurious to both mother and child.

When the mother cannot nurse the child, it should be brought up artificially on modified cow's milk. Formulas for modified milk have been worked out for every month of the child's life, and if the formulas are carefully followed, and the bottle and nipples are properly sterilized, the child should have no trouble, but should thrive and grow like on good mother's milk. If the child is sickly or delicate and does not thrive on modified cow's milk or on the other artificial foods, such as Horlick's malted milk, or Nestlé's food, then a wet nurse may become necessary. But before engaging a wet nurse great care should be taken to make sure that she is healthy, that the age of her child is approximately the same as the age of the child which she is about to nurse, and particularly that she is free from any syphilitic taint. One, two or more Wassermann tests should be made to settle the question definitely.

Mothers should bear in mind that suckling the child is good not only for the child, but for the mother as well. Lactation helps the involution of the uterus: the uterus of a nursing mother returns more quickly and more perfectly to its normal ante-pregnant condition than the uterus of the mother who cannot or will not nurse her child.

It is asserted that the reciprocal affection between mother and child is greater in cases in which the child suckled its mother's breast. This is quite likely. It is also asserted that the nursing mother transmits certain traits to its child, which the non-nursing mother cannot. This is merely a hypothesis without any scientific proof.

On the other hand, the statement that many women experience decidedly pleasurable sexual feelings while nursing seems to be well substantiated.

That the mother who nurses her child should partake of sufficient nourishment goes without saying. But the advice often given to nursing mothers to partake of beer, ale or wine is a bad one. It is a question if a mother partaking of considerable quantities of alcoholic beverages may not transmit the taste for alcohol to her children. No, alcoholics should be left alone, but milk, eggs, meat, fruit and vegetables should be partaken of in abundance.

Preparing the Nipples. For the infant to be able to nurse properly the nipples of the breast must be in good condition. If the nipples are sunken, depressed, it is torture for the child to nurse. It uses up a lot of energy uselessly, becomes exhausted, and gets very little milk; while if the nipples be tender or cracked the process of nursing is a torture for the mother.

It is therefore necessary to attend to the nipples in due time—to begin at the fifth or sixth month is not too early. If the nipples are sufficiently prominent, little need be done for them except to wash them with a little boric acid solution (one teaspoonful of boric acid to a glass of water) occasionally, and now and then to rub in a little petrolatum, plain or borated. But if the nipples are sunken so that they are below the surface of the breast, or if they are only slightly above the surface of the breast, they must be treated. Gentle traction must be made on them with the fingers three or four times a day. There are only a few cases where persistent manipulation will not develop the nipple and make it stand out prominently.

If the nipple is tender it should be washed two or three times a day with a mixture of alcohol and water; one part of alcohol to three parts of water is sufficient. In washing the nipple with this diluted alcohol it should be dried and a little petrolatum or vaseline rubbed in. This done two or three times a day during the last month or two of the pregnancy will generally produce a good healthy nipple.

The Treatment of Cracked Nipples. If the care of the nipple has been neglected, and it develops cracks or fissures so that the nursing of the child causes the mother severe pain, the nursing should be done through a nipple shield, and in the meantime between the nursings the nipple should be rubbed with the following preparation, which is excellent and which I can fully recommend: thymol iodide, ½ dram; olive oil, ½ ounce. This should be applied every hour to the nipple and covered with a little cotton; before each nursing, however, it must be well washed off with warm water or warm boric acid solution. When the nipples are cracked, the infant's lips should also before nursing be carefully wiped out with boric acid solution. For the baby's mouth contains bacteria which while harmless in themselves may if they get into the cracks of the nipple set up an inflammation of the breast or "mastitis" and cause an abscess. If the cracks are excruciatingly painful, as they sometimes are, it is necessary to give the one breast a rest for twenty-four hours and have the child nurse at the other until the cracks have partially healed.

When It Is Necessary to Dry Up the Breasts. In case of the death of the child, or if the mother for some other reason finds herself unable to nurse, such as in cases where there is absolutely no nipple, instead of the prominence of the nipple there being a deep depression, it becomes necessary to stop the secretion of the milk, or as it is said in common parlance, "to dry up the breasts." In former days, not so very long ago, and the practice is still common enough to call attention to it and to condemn it, the breasts used to be tightly bandaged, or they used to be pumped every few hours. The first causes unnecessary pain and trouble, while the second procedure, the pumping, does exactly the reverse to what it is intended to do. Instead of drying up the breasts it keeps up the secretion. The best thing to do in a case like that is to leave the breasts alone, not to pump them, but just gently support them with a bandage and then in three or four days the secretion of the milk will gradually disappear. There is some discomfort the first twenty-four or forty-eight hours, but if left alone the discomfort is less than if the breasts are manipulated, bandaged or pumped.

Menstruation or Pregnancy While Nursing. Many women do not menstruate and do not become pregnant while they are nursing. Some women will not conceive, no matter how long they may nurse the child—a year or two or longer. And some women take advantage of this fact, and in order to avoid another child they will keep up the nursing as long as possible. In Egypt and other Oriental countries where our means for the prevention of conception are unknown, it is no rare sight to see a child three or four years old interrupting his work or his play and running up to suckle his mother's breast. But not all women have this good luck. Some women (about fifty per cent.) begin to menstruate in the sixth month of lactation, while some become pregnant even before they begin to menstruate. It only too often happens that a woman considering lactation her safeguard omits to use any precautions and finds herself, to her great discomfiture, in a pregnant condition.

When a nursing woman discovers that she is pregnant she should give up nursing at once. The milk is apt to become of poor quality, but even where this is not the case, it is too much for a woman to feed one child in the uterus and one at the breast.