54. In Favour of Breast-Feeding.
I have not had children as fast as some, for which I am thankful, not because I do not love them, but because if I had more I do not think I could have done my duty to them under the circumstances. I may say I have had a very good partner in life, and that has made it better for me. But seeing my husband is only a weaver, I have not had a lot of money to go on with. I have been compelled to go out to work. I have worked when I have been pregnant, but I have always given up when I have been about six months, and then I have done all my own work up to the very last, and I can tell you it has been very hard work. Then when it has been over I have had to begin to do my housework at the fortnight end, and I think that is too soon, but what can women do when they have not the means to do it with? Of course, I am not half so bad as some. I have never carried a baby out to nurse. I have always managed to stop at home one year and get them walking. But I think if we as women had our right, we should not have to work at all during pregnancy, because I think that both the mother and baby would be better. I never knew so many bottle-fed babies as there is now. Nearly all the young married women cannot give breast. How is it? Now, I think because they work so hard before, do not get enough rest, therefore have no milk. And, then, some will not begin with their own milk, because they know they have to go out to work. Hence the baby has to suffer. Mother’s milk is the best food for baby. I heard a young mother with her first baby say the other day her husband’s mother had told her not to bother with her breasts, it made a young woman look old giving her baby breast. What a mother! I think it is one of the grandest sights to see. So you see we have a lot of educating to do yet when we hear such things as these.
Wages 16s. to 30s.; four children.