Until these two forms of training for motherhood are combined, the American girl must enter the profession of maternity without the sort of practical preparation which will insure efficiency and joy in her chosen work. What knowledge she now possesses is a smattering of what her mother has learned by experience, what the family physician imparts at odd moments, what she reads in books or magazine articles, and what she hears at lectures where a few valiant souls proclaim motherhood as a profession which requires the most thorough of training. Preparation for motherhood must rise above the practical instruction in the care and feeding of infants which leads to efficiency. It requires a certain mental and spiritual adjustment of the woman to the environment and conditions of maternity. She who is obsessed by the fear of physical suffering which motherhood may entail, who regards the coming of a child as the end of her individual career, her social life, her personal pleasures, will be neither efficient nor joyous. Fear and doubt come between her and success. They even threaten her health. Therefore, the first step in preparation for motherhood is the firm belief that it is a privilege, not a duty; a joy, not a sacrifice; an investment that will pay big dividends. Thus armored, the prospective mother enters upon the nine months of pregnancy insured against anxiety and ill-health. The joy she finds in carrying her child provides a splendid foundation for the child’s health. The woman who frets brings forth a nervous child. The woman who rebels generally bears a morbid child. Science wrangles over the rival importance of heredity and environment, but we women _know_ what effects prenatal influence works in children. And, knowing this, what a mystery that we do not mold each thought and act in the interest of the children whose up-bringing will be our real life-work! How strange that mothers do not realize that the burden of maternal and domestic duties can be lightened by prenatal care and character molding. Science has done much for the modern mother. It has lessened the danger and the pains of childbirth. The once dreaded child-bed fever is now practically unknown. Disinfectants and sanitary care have reduced this danger to a minimum. Anæsthetics have reduced the strain and pain of labor. Physicians no longer withhold the anæsthetic until the hour when instruments or an operation make its use necessary; through the later stages of ordinary labor, the modern physician offers the alleviation of chloroform, and the mother comes through the ordeal with one-fourth the pain endured by her mother and grandmother. Modern ingenuity also designs many comforts for the prospective mother, not the least of which is maternity raiment, including corsets and adjustable gowns. Why do not women avail themselves of all these aids? Largely because they are not educated for motherhood.