Mothers, in the self-sacrifice involved in their motherhood, too often forget their duty to remain beautiful. All youth is revolted by ugliness, consciously or unconsciously. A girl should not be indirectly taught to dread motherhood herself by seeing the wreckage her own mother has allowed it to make of her. A high demand for beauty of form by mothers is not selfishness but a racial duty. CHAPTER XVII Baby’s Rights “The nation that first finds a practical reconciliation between science and idealism is likely to take the front place among the peoples of the world.” DEAN INGE: _Outspoken Essays_. Baby’s rights are fundamental. They are: To be wanted. To be loved before birth as well as after birth. To be given a body untainted by any heritable disease, uncontaminated by any of the racial poisons. To be fed on the food that nature supplies, or, if that fails, the very nearest substitute that can be discovered. To have fresh air to breathe; to play in the sunshine with his limbs free in the air; to crawl about on sweet clean grass. When he is good, to do what baby wants to do and not what his parents want; for instance, to sleep most of his time, not to sit up and crow in response to having his cheeks pinched or his sides tickled. When he is naughty, to do what his parents want and not what he wants: to be made to understand the “law of the jungle.” From his earliest days he must be disciplined in relation to the great physical facts of existence, to which he will always hereafter have to bow. The sooner he comprehends this, the better for his future. Most young mothers, even those who have had the advantage of highly trained maternity nurses to assist them at first, later require authoritative advice about how to treat the baby for whom they have given so much, and to whom they wish to give every possible advantage. Many books give advice to the young mother and to these she may turn. I do not wish to duplicate what they say, but advise every one who has an infant, even if they think they know all about the best method of bringing it up, to possess a copy of Dr. Truby King’s _Baby and How to Rear It_ for reference. It is the most practical, sensible and best illustrated book of its kind. There is, therefore, on the subject of baby’s material rights not very much more that I need to say, but there is one elementary right very generally overlooked, and that is the right to love in anticipation. Baby’s right to be _wanted_ is an individual right which is of racial importance. No human being should be brought into the world unless his parents desire to take on the responsibility of that new life which must, for so long, be dependent upon them.