A Mothers' Eugenic Club would of course discuss the practical side of [57] the eugenic question: the proper feeding and clothing of children; hygiene, sanitation, housekeeping and homemaking, and the efficiency and health of each member of the home, and all other topics of interest to every wife and mother. The writer believes that in the very near future we shall have a Mothers' Eugenic Club in every community in the United States; that these clubs will be guided by, and be an instrument of, a National Eugenic Bureau, composed of women, that will cooeperate and harmonize the work as a whole, so that the conservation of human life will be effected to its maximum extent; that the excessive infant mortality will be overcome, because ignorant and incompetent mothers--the greatest cause of infant mortality--will be educated and instructed in the rudiments of eugenics and will consequently, to a large extent, cease to be ignorant and incompetent; that the desecration of young wives will stop, and stop forever, because vice and disease will be branded and exposed; that the feeble-minded, the deaf-mute, the imbecile, and the insane, will no longer be allowed to propagate their kind, to the permanent detriment of the race. When such clubs are established, and when all mothers do their individual duty in the interest of the race, we shall begin to see the dawn of a promise that will achieve its supreme success in the generations that will people the earth in the eugenic aftertime. * * * * * [61] CHILD-BIRTH CHAPTER VI "Solicitude for children is one of the signs of a growing civilization. To cure is the voice of the past; to prevent, the divine whisper of to-day." KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN. PREPARATIONS FOR THE CONFINEMENT THE BIRTH CHAMBER--WHAT TO PROVIDE FOR A CONFINEMENT--READY TO PURCHASE OBSTETRICAL OUTFITS--POSITION AND ARRANGEMENT OF THE BED--HOW TO PROPERLY PREPARE THE ACCOUCHMENT BED--THE KELLY PAD--THE ADVANTAGES OF THE KELLY PAD--SHOULD A BINDER BE USED?--SANITARY NAPKINS--HOW TO CALCULATE THE PROBABLE DATE OF THE CONFINEMENT--OBSTETRICAL TABLE--WHEN SHOULD A PREGNANT WOMAN FIRST CALL UPON HER PHYSICIAN--REGARDING THE CHOICE OF A PHYSICIAN--HOW TO KNOW THE RIGHT KIND OF A PHYSICIAN FOR A CONFINEMENT--THE SELECTION OF A NURSE--THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A TRAINED AND A MATERNITY NURSE--DUTIES OF A CONFINEMENT NURSE--THE REQUISITES OF A GOOD CONFINEMENT NURSE--THE PERSONAL RIGHTS OF A CONFINEMENT NURSE--CRITICIZING AND GOSSIPING ABOUT PHYSICIANS. THE BIRTH CHAMBER