Better babies and their careRichardson, Anna Steese
Science
Better babies and their care
Richardson, Anna Steese
Infants -- Care; Infants -- Health and hygiene
In addition to regular sleep at night, the prospective mother should
have at least one nap during the day, at a time which will least
interfere with her household duties. A mother who has borne six
children, who has had little domestic help, and who yet retains her
youthful look and energy, has often told me that she thinks her present
condition due to the fact that while carrying and nursing her babies
she never permitted herself to reach that stage of exhaustion where her
nerves twitched, her voice shrilled, and she became irritable. She made
it a practice to drop her work when these symptoms appeared, and to
seek the sanctuary of a quiet room apart from her family, if only for
ten or fifteen minutes. And, most important, from the very start she
trained her household to respect her right thus to draw apart.
Exercise for the pregnant woman should mean more than muscular
activity. It should represent change of scene and thought, relaxation
and recreation. The best form of exercise is walking for walking’s
sake. This does not mean shopping or walking a few blocks to the home
of a friend and then sitting down for a half hour or more of gossip.
It means going out into God’s fresh air with one’s eyes open to the
beauties of nature or the human drama through which the walk leads. On
the other hand, the woman who has led a sedentary life should not walk
too violently at first. Let her start with a half hour’s walk each day
and increase it gradually until she spends at least two hours outdoors
daily.
The woman who lives in a small city, a suburb, a country town, or on
a farm, is singularly fortunate, as she will find light gardening the
very best form of exercise.
In the side yard of a charming home where I often visit there
is a flower-bed for each child born into the family circle. One
year the mother laid out, planted and coaxed to bloom a border of
lilies-of-the-valley; at another time she started her violet bed; a
third child is represented by a wonderful circle of tulips and the
fourth by an arbor of rambler roses. I often wonder whether the fine,
flower-like natures of the girls in this family cannot be traced to the
mother’s tranquil work in the garden.
Raising chickens, ducks, or pigeons will also take the expectant mother
outdoors and provide pleasant recreation.
The woman who, through her girlhood, has been keen for athletic sports,
such as tennis, golf, skating, and motoring, must curb these forms of
recreation. Fully ninety per cent. of the physicians with whom I have
discussed the question condemn constant motoring for the expectant
mother. To employ the automobile as a transportation convenience is one
thing; to take long, tiring rides or tours is positively dangerous for
the pregnant woman, as it invites miscarriage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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