It is notorious that a small, healthy 6-lb baby frequently flourishes better than the heavier infant of 8 or 9 lbs; also that, since the larger baby usually loses weight after birth, its bulk is demonstrably unnecessary at that stage. What then prevents us from adopting what is obviously Nature’s plan—the birth of relatively thin and small babies, through care of the gestating mother’s food?
It is obviously only a question of feeding and hygiene, and of ridding the public and the medical profession of a number of absurd prejudices: the rest will necessarily follow if only it be earnestly desired.[[9]]
[9]. As the present chapter is being written, we notice with pleasure that at a conclave of doctors held recently at Bradford, Dr Μ. E. Mackenzie, of Leeds, put a question to the meeting which showed that she is evidently on the track of the reforms we recommend; but we were not surprised to find that the President, Dr J. S. Fairbairn, declared that he did not take her remarks seriously. (See British Medical Journal, Aug. 16th, 1924).
We feel convinced, from our study of animals, that this is the direction in which inquiry should be directed, for at least it offers some hope of an improvement, whereas the elaboration and more persistent use of artificial aids offers none. Doctors should exert themselves to discover that ideal gestatory diet which will lead to an infant’s being born whose weight is from 6 to 6½ lbs, whose body is lean, whose head is small and not too hard, and who will gain and not lose weight after birth. But we can hardly refrain from adding that, when once these food-conditions are found, medical men are likely to discover that they have much less to do than at present by the bedside of the expectant mother, and that they will then be invited to delegate their duties to someone less learned, less expensive, less pressed for time, and therefore less interested in achieving the result by scientific aids.
Dr Eichholz of Kreuznach, writing in the Frauenarzt as early as 1895, outlined a system of dieting which he declared produced the results described above; while Dr Lahmann, who was the first to point out that our aim should be to obtain smaller and thinner babies, with heads less hard at birth, experimented with a diet poor in nitrogen, which he declared was completely successful.
According to Lahmann, it is not only excessive feeding and drinking during pregnancy which, owing to the natural greed of women and the sycophantic encouragement of that greed by ignorant doctors, is the universal error, but the excessive eating of foods rich in protein; and he recommends a diet rich in food-salts and poor in meat and cereals, which seems to approximate very well to what one may imagine the food of primitive mankind to have been.
The compass of this work, however, does not allow us to enter into the minutiæ of the Lahmann diet. All we wish to emphasize here is that, if only we can rid our minds of a few ridiculous superstitions and aim at a natural ideal, the attainment of which cannot be beyond the wit of man, the probability is that the “sorrow” in which children are brought forth will be greatly mitigated, if not wholly removed, and much of its pristine bliss restored to the life of woman and to motherhood.
Since our aim should be the recovery of our belief in the value of life and love, by improving our bodily functions, we cannot halt at any difficulty in the way of our success. But success means not only contesting the sway of the body-despising values, but also fighting the Conservatism and prejudices of a great profession, which, while it has great power to-day, can hardly fail to identify its best interests with a perpetuation and aggravation of our present physical disabilities.
Passing now to lactation, which constitutes one of the chief joys of motherhood, and which, in its serenity and bliss has in all ages symbolized the beauty of the feminine virtues, the home, and the family, it will perhaps not astonish the reader to hear that there is at present no human function, except parturition, which is more often replaced by artificial means than this one.
The vast multiplication in recent years of patent infant-foods and preparations of cow’s milk sufficiently demonstrates the extent to which modern women are failing in this respect; and, when it is remembered that this failure is to be observed in all classes, even among those who cannot plead society obligations as an excuse, the situation appears to be deplorable enough.