Mother, Nurse and Infant / A Manual Especially Adapted for the Guidance of Mothers and Monthly Nurses, Comprising Full Instruction in Regard To Pregnancy, Preparation for Child-birth, and the Care of Mother and Child, and Designed to Impart so Much Knowledge of Anatomy, Physiology, Midwifery, and the Proper Use of Medicines as Will Serve Intelligently to Direct the Wife, Mother and Nurse in All Emergencies.

by S. P. Sackett

Delay in applying the child to the breasts is often a cause of swelled breasts. After it has been fed for a few days it may refuse to nurse, and if it does nurse the nipple may be quite tender. But, unless for some cause the secretion is to be checked, the effort should be made every two hours to induce the child to draw. You will be more successful in these efforts if you can reduce the heat and swelling. Rub the breasts every four hours with good, warm olive oil, vaseline, or camphorated oil, and keep the excoriated nipple thickly coated with sub-nitrate of bismuth.

The breast should be rubbed, and the child should be nursed regularly, although I do not advise that the child or the mother should be roused from their slumbers; it is better to delay for awhile the usual effort. But, even at first, a child can be nursed with considerable regularity every hour and a half during the day, and twice during the night; and it should be applied alternately to either breast, even if it seems to prefer one to the other.

It is often necessary to wash the breast and nipple with warm water, and dry it with a soft napkin, before applying the babe.

During all the time that the mother nurses the child, the MIND OF THE MOTHER exerts an influence on the latter through her milk. If the mother’s mind is very much disturbed by any apprehensions, fears or anxieties, these perturbations will not only be likely to check the flow of milk, but will alter its quality, and perhaps render it hurtful and dangerous to the infant. The nurse should guard the patient as much as possible from anything causing nervous agitation, fretting, anger, grief, fear, sudden terror, or great anxiety, as these are injurious to the mother, and may be harmful and fatal to the child. Equanimity and cheerfulness of mind on the part of the mother are important at any period of her pregnancy or nursing. I will now give more particular directions in regard to

THE CARE OF THE CHILD.

The food of the child, if it is necessary to feed it at first, may be one-third of new milk and two-thirds of warm water, slightly sweetened. It is not necessary that it should be fed for at least eight hours after birth, and at first the quantity fed it must be small. Except in rare cases the milk furnished by the mother will come soon enough, and in sufficient quantity to supply the wants of the child, and it is best for both that the child should draw it when secreted. For the instruction of the mother, as well as the nurse, I here quote a paragraph upon the nourishment and feeding of the child, not only of the new-born, but also of the subsequent months:

“No form of artificial nourishment can compare with that furnished by the mother. Women should know and consider the probability of disease and death occurring from any other mode, and the difficulties and annoyances to be encountered in the use of artificial food. As a further inducement to her to nurse her own child, she should know that her offspring is sure to imbibe with its milk, deep, earnest affection. The mother who can nurse her own offspring should commence within eight hours after delivery, and in the mean time no trash should be put in its mouth to still its cries, or for any other reason; if it has not been surfeited, it will be disposed to take the breast. It should be placed to the breast before they are gorged with milk, for at that later time the flow is less easy, the parts are more irritable, and the child sucking with greater power, we are more likely to have, as the result, irritated nipples. Nature prompts all animals to suck their mother soon after they are born; we are less liable to have sore, irritated, cracked nipples, and there is less liability to infantile colics, etc., if we follow the guidance of nature and instinct.”

As soon as possible accustom the child to the habit of nursing every two hours. If there is a proper interval between the times of nursing, the child draws with more avidity, actually empties the breast, and obtains that part that contains the most cream. Endeavor also to have the intervals longer at night, so that, from 10 P. M. to 6 A. M., it nurses but once or twice. Still, if it wakes every two or three hours, demands its supply of nourishment, and you cannot otherwise quiet the child, you must indulge it. Do not accustom the child to sleeping on the mother’s breast. If it sleep in its own crib or bed, properly clothed and protected, it is less liable to have its rest disturbed. Avoid the custom of having a young child sleep with old and sickly persons, and also of having them sleep in ill-ventilated rooms, and of covering the child’s face as it sleeps. There is danger that a child may die from want of pure fresh air, from having its face pressed tightly in the embrace of the person with whom it sleeps, from the multiplicity of its clothes, and from the mass of bedclothing used by the mother, as well as from improper food. A child should never be covered to sweat by reason of the warmth of its clothing, or of that of the apartment.

If the mother does not enjoy good health, it may be better for her not to nurse the child at night, but to have it fed once or twice with a little diluted cow’s milk at night, and to nurse it during the day.

The following have been named as CAUSES WHY THE MOTHER CANNOT PROPERLY NURSE THE CHILD: