If it is left to you to dry up your breasts, your safest course will be to do nothing beyond applying a supporting bandage, if your breasts are heavy enough to be uncomfortable, and keeping your nipples scrupulously clean. You may rely absolutely upon the fact that the baby’s suckling is the most important stimulation in promoting the activity of the breasts and if this stimulation is not given, or is removed, the secretion of milk will invariably subside in the course of a few days. This is true whether the reason for drying up the breasts is that the baby is stillborn or has died, or a live baby’s nursing is discontinued. It is true that the breasts may be swollen and very uncomfortable for a day or two, and in addition to a supporting bandage the doctor may order sedatives, but the discomfort subsides as the milk disappears. Quite naturally you will not drink an extra amount of milk if you are drying up your breasts, but it probably will not be necessary to place any other restrictions upon your diet. In thinking over the nursing period as a whole, we find that after all it is a fairly simple matter so to order one’s life as to promote and maintain a satisfactory supply of milk. The milk thus produced is the ideal baby food and _there is no entirely adequate substitute_. Never forget that. It gives the baby enormously increased chances of living past babyhood and protects him from many diseases. Quite evidently breast feeding is every baby’s birthright and his mother is the only one who can deprive him of it. CHAPTER X THE MOTHER’S CARE OF HER BABY “The mother is the natural guardian of her child; no other influence can compare with hers in its value in safeguarding infant life.”—_Sir Arthur Newsholme._ Before undertaking the care of the new baby, suppose we stop for a moment, and consider just what he represents; what he has been through; what struggles and dangers are ahead of him; what are the weaknesses of his equipment to meet these perils and what must be the character of your service to him if you are to do quite all in your power to help him safely over this hazardous period of early infancy. At the time of birth, the baby makes the most complete and abrupt change in his surroundings and condition that he will make during his entire lifetime.