Getting ready to be a mother

by Carolyn Conant Van Blarcom

Summing up the matter of your diet, we find that you should have light, nourishing, easily digestible food, consisting chiefly of cereals, creamed dishes, creamed soups, eggs, meat in moderation, salads and the fresh fruits and vegetables that ordinarily agree with you. Many doctors advise at least a quart of milk daily, in addition to that which is used in preparing the meals and an abundance of water to drink.

Bowels. Your bowels should move freely and regularly every day, but you should not take cathartics, or even enemata without your doctor’s order. You probably will be able to establish the habit of a daily movement by taking exercise, eating bulky fruit and vegetables, drinking an abundance of water and regularly attempting to empty your bowels at the same time every day, preferably immediately after breakfast.

Rest and Exercise. You will not be likely to thrive, nor will the baby, unless you have adequate rest and sleep and take daily at least a moderate amount of exercise in the open air. You need eight hours sleep, out of twenty-four, in a room with the windows open, and as fatigue is bad for your milk it may be a good plan for you to lie down for a while every afternoon. Your exercise will, of course, have to be adjusted to your tastes, habits, circumstances and physical endurance, for it must always be stopped before you are tired. Walking is often the best form of exercise that the nursing mother can take and though as a rule she may engage in any mild sports that she enjoys, violent exercise is inadvisable because of the exhaustion that may follow.

Recreation. Part of the value of exercise lies in the pleasure and diversion which it offers, for as we have seen, a happy, contented frame of mind is practically indispensable to the production of good milk. In addition to some regular and enjoyable exercise, therefore, you need a certain amount of recreation and change of thought and environment. If life is monotonous and colorless, the average woman is almost sure to become irritable and depressed; to lose her poise and perspective; to worry and fret, and then, no matter what she eats nor how much she sleeps, her digestion will suffer, her milk will be affected and the baby will pay. This, of course, goes back to the question of the young mother’s mental state and the condition of her nerves as determining factors in her ability to nurse the baby successfully.

Just here it is important to say a word of caution about this very question of your attitude of mind, particularly as it relates to your care of yourself.

It may be that one of the most difficult tasks you will have will be that of getting out of the habit of accepting the position that borders on being an invalid—of being a protected person who is thought about, cared for and considered at every turn. This has been your position for several months and the most natural result of it all is a tendency to cling, perhaps ever so little and even unconsciously, to this very pleasant state. It is not possible for anyone to reduce so broad and intangible a subject to a few definite words of advice. But think it over for yourself and try to strike that happiest of happy mediums that lies somewhere between the equally harmful courses of coddling yourself and of overdoing.

A good many doctors think that for the sake of giving the nursing mother an opportunity to go out, mingle with her friends, take in some music or a play, it is often a good plan to replace one breast feeding, sometime in the course of each day, with a bottle feeding. The freedom which this long interval between two nursings gives the mother for diversion and amusement, will often affect her general condition so favorably that the quality of her milk is definitely better than it otherwise would be and the baby is benefited as a result. This single supplementary feeding cannot be regarded lightly, however, for it must be prepared with the same cleanliness and accuracy as an entirely artificial diet, which will be described in the next chapter.

Weaning. One advantage in giving the baby a supplementary bottle once a day, is that it paves the way for weaning, when the time comes to make this change. Under ordinary conditions, the mother begins to wean her baby about the eighth or tenth month. Having started by replacing one breast feeding, daily, with a bottle feeding, she gradually increases the number of bottles given daily until the breast feedings are discontinued by the time the baby is eleven or twelve months old. There are exceptions to this general rule, of course, and under any conditions the weaning should always be directed by a doctor, for the baby may suffer seriously unless the change in food is skillfully made. If the mother’s milk is satisfactory and the baby is doing well, it is often considered wise not to discontinue the breast feeding entirely, during the hot summer months even though the weaning falls due at this time.

It was formerly deemed advisable to wean the baby for any one of several reasons, but at present the only indications for this step which seem to be generally accepted by the medical profession, are: pulmonary tuberculosis, acute infectious diseases in the mother and pregnancy. Menstruation was long regarded as incompatible with satisfactory nursing, but it is now known that if the mother is taking proper care of herself and is in generally good condition, the impoverishing effect of menstruation upon the milk is usually for the duration of the periods only. It may be necessary to supplement the breast feeding with suitably modified cows’ milk during menstruation, but the baby should be put to the breast regularly, just the same, for if the stimulation of the baby’s suckling is discontinued, the temporary reduction in the amount of the milk secreted will probably become permanent.

The state of pregnancy, however, is different, for though some women nurse a baby satisfactorily for some months after becoming pregnant, it is not considered advisable to subject any woman to the combined strain of pregnancy and nursing. Moreover, the mother’s milk is usually so impoverished during pregnancy that the nursing baby suffers in consequence.