W. S. B. Mathews - "A Popular History of the Art of Music"

Maria Antonia Field - "Chimes of Mission Bells"

Mrs. Humphry Ward - "The Coryston Family"

Hugh Walpole - "The Cathedral"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

The Mother and Her Child

W >> William S. Sadler >> The Mother and Her Child




_Recreation._ Pleasant diversion is very essential for the mother, and
should be indulged in at least once a week. The bedtime hours,
however, should not be interfered with and the recreation should be
selected with a view to amuse, refresh and create a harmless diversion
for the mother's mind. Under no circumstances should the mother settle
down to the thought: "No, I can't go out any more. I can't leave my
baby." You should get away from the baby a short time each day, and
go out among your former friends and acquaintances. Many a wrecked
home--a shattered domestic heaven--dates its beginnings back to the
days when the over-anxious young mother turned her back on her husband
and looked only into the face of her (their) child. Nothing should
come in between the filial friendship of husband and wife, not even
their child. So, dear mother, if you can, go out occasionally, away
from the baby, and enjoy the association of your husband and keep in
touch not only with his interests, but with the outside world. You
will come back refreshed and wonderfully repaid, and the face of the
adored infant will appear more beautiful than ever.


DIET OF THE NURSING MOTHER

The general suggestions on diet which we made to the expectant mother
are also valuable for the nursing mother. The food should be
appetizing, nutritious, and of a laxative nature. Three meals should
be eaten: one at seven A. M., one at one P. M. and one about
six-thirty at night, with the heaviest meal usually at one P. M. As
the mother usually wakens at five o'clock, or possibly earlier, she
should be given a glass of milk, cocoa, or eggnog. If she awakens at
six, nothing should be taken until the breakfast, which should consist
of a good nourishing meal, such as baked potatoes with white sauce,
poached eggs, cereal, milk or cocoa, prunes, figs, or a baked sweet
apple, with bread and butter, etc.

From that hour until one P. M. only water is taken, and several
glasses are urged during this interval. With nothing between meals but
water and a little outdoor exercise, a good appetite is created for
the one P. M. meal which should abundantly supply and satisfy the
hungry mother; and then again, nothing is to be taken between dinner
and supper but water. And after the supper hour, a walk out into the
cool night air should be enjoyed with the husband and on going to bed
about ten P. M., an eggnog or glass of milk may be taken. At the close
of the other meals a cup of oatmeal gruel or milk or any other
nourishing liquid may be enjoyed.

The eating of food or the drinking of nourishing drinks between the
meals not only interferes with digestion and disturbs the mother, but
it also upsets the baby; and it is often the reason why the appetite
of the mother is so deranged at the meal time, her spirits depressed,
and her milk diminished. Plenty of good nourishing food, taken three
times a day with an abundance of water drinking between the meals,
together with a free happy frame of mind occasioned by the recreation
before mentioned, usually produces good milk and plenty of it. A nap
between meals will probably produce more milk than eating between
meals.


OBJECTIONABLE FOODS

All foods that cause indigestion in the mother or babe should be
avoided.

Some mothers continue to eat tomatoes, peaches, sour salads, acid
fruits, and it appears in no way to interfere with baby's comfort; but
they are the exception rather than the rule. Usually tomatoes, acid
salad dressings, and mixed desserts must be avoided. Each mother is a
law unto herself. Certainly none of our readers will selfishly
continue any food she feels will make her baby cry. All acid fruits,
rich desserts, certain coarse vegetables, concoctions of all
descriptions such as rarebit, condiments, highly seasoned sauce, etc.,
should be avoided.

Acid fruitades, such as lemonade, limeade and orangeade, can be taken
by a small per cent of nursing mothers; and, since fruit acids are
neutralized and alkalized in the process of digestion and
assimilation, and since they are the very fruit-drinks we prescribe
for patients suffering with an increased acidity, it would appear that
they were in every way wholesome for the mother--if they in no way
interfere with the baby. Practically, they do as a rule disturb the
baby's digestion and should be avoided by those mothers who have found
this to be the case.


CAKED BREASTS

During the first week of lactation the milk tubes of the breasts very
often become blocked and the breasts become engored with milk, this
condition being known as "caked breasts." At this particular time of
the baby's life, he takes little more than an ounce of milk at a feed;
so, beside the incoming engorgement of milk, an additional burden is
thrown upon the milk tubes of the breasts in that they are not
entirely emptied each nursing time by the young infant. When the
breasts threaten to "cake," immediate steps must be taken to relieve
the condition--to empty the breasts--and this is usually accomplished
in the following manner: with hands well lubricated with sweet oil or
olive oil the nurse begins gentle manipulation of the breasts toward
the nipple in circular strokes, with the result that the milk soon
begins to ooze out. This massage should be continued until relief is
obtained; or the breast pump may be applied. Hard nodules should not
be allowed to form or to remain in the breasts. Hot compresses (wrung
from boiling water by means of a "potato ricer") may be applied to the
caked breast which is protected from the immediate heat by one
thickness of a dry blanket flannel. These hot compresses should be
removed every three minutes until three have been applied, then an ice
water compress is quickly applied, to be followed by more hot ones and
then a cold; and so on, until as many as four sets each have been
administered.

Gentle massage may again be administered and it will be found that
they empty now with greater ease because of the preceding heat. After
the breasts have been emptied, and thoroughly washed with soap suds
and carefully dried, they should be thickly covered with cotton
batting and firmly compressed against the chest wall by a snug-fitted
breast binder, which serves the double purpose of relieving pain by
not allowing the breasts to sag downward, at the same time preventing
an over-abundant secretion of milk by diminishing the blood supply to
the glands of the breast. In case the persistent manipulation of the
breast and the use of the breast pump do not relieve the condition,
and if the repeated effort day after day seems to avail nothing; then,
as a rule, we must look for a breast abscess to follow if the breasts
are not immediately "dried up." In all such cases of engorgement, the
attending physician should be notified at once.


SORE NIPPLES

The nipple must be kept _dry_ between nursings, which should be
limited to twenty minutes. Regularity should be maintained. The
nipples should never be touched or handled by hands that have not been
scrubbed with soap and a nail brush. During the early nursing days
they are wet much of the time and are subject to much stress and
strain in the "pulling effort" of the baby, as a result of which they
become very tender, chapped, cracked, and often bleed. Allowing the
baby to go to sleep with the nipple in his mouth also exposes the
nipple to unnecessary moisture which increases the possibility of
painful cracking. The pain occasioned by nursing at this time is truly
indescribable, and is most often the cause of absolute refusal on the
part of the mother to nurse her babe--with the result that it is put
on the bottle. Again, the fear and dread of being hurt so often tends
to diminish the flow of milk. It is entirely possible so to prepare
the nipple for this exposure, during the last months of pregnancy,
that all this discomfort and pain may be entirely avoided (See
chapter, "The Hygiene of Pregnancy").

Before the mother is put to rest after the birth of the baby the
breasts are prepared as follows: A thorough cleansing with soap and
water is followed by a careful disinfection with alcohol which leaves
the nipple perfectly dry. A soft sterile pad is then applied and held
in place by a breast binder. Before and after each nursing the nipple
and surrounding area is swabbed with boracic acid (saturated solution)
and carefully dried by applying a clean, dry, sterile pad.

Painful cracks and fissures are nearly always due to lack of the care
described above, and are almost wholly preventable. When the first
crack appears and nursing becomes painful, the baby's mouth should not
touch the nipple again until healing has taken place. A thorough
cleansing with boiled water should be made and then the sterile nipple
shield should be applied through which baby will get abundant
satisfaction, while the mother is spared the pain, and the nipple has
an opportunity to get well.

In the case of sore and cracked nipples, thorough cleansing with
boiled water and boracic acid solution follows each nursing seance;
and, after careful drying, balsam peru--equal parts with
glycerine--may be applied with a tiny piece of sterile gauze or
cotton; a sterile cotton pad is then applied to each breast which is
held in place by a breast binder.

The nipple shield, when employed, is boiled after each nursing and
washed in boracic acid solution just before each nursing. The
strictest cleanliness must be observed, and then we hope to bring
relief and comfort to the mother, and effect the saving of nature's
best food for the baby.


CONSTITUENTS OF MOTHER'S MILK

Mother's milk--that wonderfully adaptable, ever-changing food, so
accurately and scientifically suited to the hourly and daily needs of
the growing child--is composed of five different parts, totally unlike
in every particular, and each part exactly suited to the needs which
it supplies. The cream of the milk, as well as the lactose or sugar,
builds up the fatty tissues of the body as well as helps provide the
energy for crying, nursing, kicking, etc. The proteins (the curd of
the milk) are exceedingly important; they are especially devoted to
building up the cells and tissues of the body of the growing child.
The salts form a very small part of the baby's food, but an important
one, for they are needed chiefly for the bones and the blood. The
fats, sugars, proteins, and salts, taken together, form the solids of
mother's milk, and are held in solution in the proportion of thirteen
parts of solids to eighty-seven parts of water; which so holds these
solids in solution that the baby can digest and assimilate these
necessary food elements. The mother's milk increases in strength day
by day and month by month as the baby grows, and is the only perfect
infant food on earth.


THE TIME OF THE FIRST FEEDING

Soon after the birth of the baby the wearied mother seeks rest--she
usually falls into a quiet, restful slumber; the baby likewise goes to
sleep and usually does not awaken for several hours. After six or
eight hours the child is put to the breast and he begins to nurse at
once, without any special help. This first nursing should be
discontinued after four or five minutes, while he is put to the other
breast for the same length of time.

If there is difficulty in sucking, a bit of milk may be made to ooze
out on the clean nipple, while the baby's lips are pressed to it,
after which the nurse gently presses and rubs the breasts toward the
nipple. After the nursing, the nipples should be elongated, if
necessary, by rubbing, shaping, or breast pump.

The baby gets but little nourishment during the first two days, but
that which he does get is essential; for the colostrum--the first
milk--is highly laxative in nature and serves the important purpose of
cleaning out the intestinal tract of that first tarry, fecal residue,
the meconium. This early sucking of the child accomplishes another
purpose besides the obtaining of this important laxative--it also
reflexly increases the contractibility of the muscles of the womb,
which is an exceedingly important service just at this time.

Should the mother or caretaker feel that baby will starve before the
milk comes, or that it is necessary to provide "sweetened water;" let
us assure them that nothing is needed except what nature provides.
Nature makes the babe intensely hungry during these first two days, so
that he will suck well, and if he is fed sweetened water, gruel, or
anything else, he will not suck forcefully; and so nature's plan for
securing extra or increased uterine contractions and the stimulation
of the breast glands will be seriously interfered with.


WATER DRINKING

As soon as the new born babe is washed and dressed he is given two
teaspoons of warmed, boiled water; and this practice is continued
every two hours during the day, until as much as two to four ounces of
unsweetened water is taken by the tiny babe during the twenty-four
hours. Inanition fever--the fever that sometimes follows a failure to
give water to the new born infant--is thus avoided. The bottle from
which the water is given should be scalded out each time, the nipple
boiled, and just before the "water nursing" the nipple should be
swabbed with boracic acid solution.


REGULARITY IN FEEDING

From earliest infancy the baby should be nursed by the "clock," and
not by the "squawk." Until he reaches his sixth-month birthday, he is
fed with unerring regularity every three hours during the day. Asleep
or awake he is put to the breast, while during the night he is allowed
to sleep as long over the three-hour period as he will. Babies are
usually nursed at night: during the early weeks, at nine o'clock in
the evening, at midnight, and at six o'clock in the morning. After
four months all nursing after ten P. M. may be omitted.

The baby is ordinarily allowed to remain at the breast for about
twenty minutes. He may often be satisfied with one breast if the milk
is plentiful; if not, he is given both breasts; and may we add the
following injunction? insist that nothing shall go into your baby's
mouth but your own breast milk and warm or cool-boiled water; no
sugar, whiskey, paregoric, or soothing syrup should be given, no
matter how he cries. Never give a baby food merely to pacify him or to
stop his crying; it will damage him in the end. More than likely he is
thirsty, and milk to him is what bread and meat are to you, neither of
which you want when you are thirsty.


POSITION OF MOTHER DURING THE NURSING

A perfectly comfortable position during nursing for both mother and
babe is necessary for satisfactory results. During the lying-in period
the mother should rest well over on her side with her arm up and her
hand under her head, the other hand supports the breast and assists in
keeping the nipple in the baby's mouth, as well as preventing the
breast from in any way interfering with baby's breathing. A rolled
pillow is placed at the mother's back for support.

After the mother leaves the bed, she will find a low chair most
convenient when nursing the baby, and if an ordinary chair be used,
she will find that a footstool adds greatly to her comfort. Once
during the forenoon and once during the afternoon the nursing mother
will find it a wonderful source of rest and relaxation if she removes
all tight clothing, dons a comfortable wrapper, and lies down on the
bed to nurse her babe; and as the babe naps after the feed, she
likewise should doze and allow mother nature to restore, refresh, and
fit her for restful and happy motherhood.

Worry, grief, fatigue, household cares, loss of sleep, social
debauches, emotional sprawls--all debilitate the mother, and usually
decrease the flow of milk.


NURSING WHEN ANGRY AND OVERHEATED

Overheating, irritability, and sudden anger, almost invariably tend to
raise the blood-pressure, which means the entry into the blood stream
of an increased amount of epinephrin, which disturbs the baby greatly,
often throwing him into convulsions or other sudden, acute illness.

Menstruation often interferes with the nursing mother, the milk
becoming weaker at this time; however, if the infant continues to gain
and the mother feels comparatively well, no attention need be paid to
this fact.

Another pregnancy demands a drying up of the breast at once, as the
tax is too great on the mother.


THE STOOLS

The stools of the breast-fed baby do not require as much attention as
those of the bottle-fed child. In cases of constipation, after four
months, from one teaspoon up to one-half cup of unsweetened prune
juice may be given one hour before the afternoon feed.

In instances of colic with signs of fermentation in the stool, the
mother may take several doses (under her physician's orders) of common
baking soda; or, if she is constipated, calcined magnesia will usually
right the condition. Nature's mother milk is so beautifully adapted to
the baby's needs that it is the rule for baby to have perfectly normal
stools.


SYMPTOMS OF SUCCESSFUL NURSING

A happy baby is a satisfied baby. He lies quietly in a sleepy, relaxed
condition if he has enough to eat, provided he is otherwise
comfortable and dry. He awakens at the end of two hours and perhaps
cries; but plain, unsweetened, warm, boiled water quenches his
thirst, and he lies content for another hour, when he is regularly
nursed. He gains on an average of about one ounce a day.


EARMARKS OF UNSUCCESSFUL NURSING

Constant discomfort, vomiting, fretful crying, passing and belching of
gas, colicky pain, disturbed sleep, greenish stools with mucus, are
among the more prominent earmarks of unsuccessful nursing. These
symptoms appearing in a pale, flabby, listless, indifferent or cross
baby, with steady loss of weight continued over a period of three or
four weeks, point to "nursing trouble;" which, if not corrected, will
lead to that much dreaded infantile condition--malnutrition.

Bolting of food or overeating results in vomiting and gas, and thus
interferes with normal nursing, as also may tongue-tie. A condition in
the mouth, medically known as "stomatitis," and commonly known as
"thrush," often gives rise to a fretful cry when nursing is attempted.
In the first place, the baby cannot "hold on" to the nipple; while, in
the second place, it hurts his inflamed mouth when he makes an effort
to nurse.

Long continued nursing covering three-fourths of an hour or more,
seizing of the nipple for a moment and then discarding it, apparently
in utter disgust, are the earmarks of very scanty milk supply and
should receive immediate attention.


AIDS TO THE MILK SUPPLY

Believing that many more mothers than do so should nurse their babies,
we have carefully tabulated a number of aids to the milk supply, which
we hope will be most earnestly tried before the baby is taken from the
breast--for so many, many more bottle-fed babies die during the first
year than the breast fed. The dangers of infection, the worry of the
food preparation, the uncertainty of results, all call for a most
untiring effort on the part of every doctor, nurse, and mother, in
their endeavors to secure maternal nursing. The following is a summary
of "aids to the milk supply:"

1. Regular periodical sucking of the breasts from the day of baby's
birth.

2. Systematic applications of alternate hot and cold compresses,
followed by massage to the breasts.

3. Three good nourishing meals each day, eaten with merriment and
gladness of heart.

4. A glass of "cream gruel," milk, cocoa, or eggnog at the close of
each meal, with a glass just before retiring.

5. Three outings each day in the open air.

6. Nurse the baby regularly and then turn its care over to another,
you seek the out of doors and engage in walking, rowing, riding and
other pleasurable exercise.

7. Take a daily nap.

8. You can bank on fretting and stewing over the hot cook stove to
decrease your milk. It seldom fails to spoil it.

9. Regular body bathing, with cold friction rubs to the skin.

10. A happy, carefree mental state. Nothing dries up milk so rapidly
as worry, grief, or nagging.

11. The administration, preferably in the early days, of desiccated
bovine placenta; although it may be given at any time during the
period of nursing.


WHEN THE BABY SHOULD NOT BE NURSED

As much as we desire maternal nursing for the babe, there do occur
instances and conditions which demand a change to artificial feeding,
such as the following:

1. A new pregnancy.
2. Mothers with uncontrollable tempers.
3. Cases of breast abscess.
4. Prolonged illness of the mother with high fever.
5. Wasting diseases such as tuberculosis, Bright's disease, heart
disease, etc.
6. Maternal syphilis.
7. When maternal milk utterly fails, or is wholly inadequate.

When a maternal anesthetic is to be administered, or in case of
inflammation of the breast or during a very short illness not covering
more than two or three days, then the breast pump may be used
regularly every three hours to both breasts; the baby may be
artificially fed and then returned to the breast after the effects of
the anesthetic has worn off or the temperature has been normal for
twenty-four hours.

There may also appear definite indications in certain children which
make it imperative that the nursing child should early be weaned.
These manifestations of disordered nutrition and failing health
admonish us to put the baby on properly modified milk, or to transfer
it to a wet nurse.

These conditions are:

1. Progressive loss in weight.

2. A bad diarrhea of long standing; one which does not yield to the
usual remedies, at least not as long as the baby continues to feed
from the breast. These diarrheas are especially serious when
accompanied by a steady loss in weight.

3. Excessive vomiting accompanied by progressive loss in weight.


THE WET NURSE

Because of the rarity of good, healthy wet nurses, it is always better
to attempt to feed the baby with scientifically modified milk (not
proprietary foods), good, clean, cow's milk properly modified to suit
the weight and age of the child. We put weight first, for we prepare
food for so many pounds of baby rather than for the number of months
old he is.

If modified food has failed and the best specialist within your reach
orders a wet nurse; she must have the following qualifications:

1. She must be free from tuberculosis and syphilis.
2. She should be between twenty and thirty years of age.
3. She should abstain from all stimulants.
4. She should be amiable, temperate, and should sense her
responsibility.

If an unmarried mother of her first child is engaged as a wet nurse,
she should not be "stuffed" or allowed to overeat, which is commonly
the result of moving her from her lower life into more comfortable
surroundings, or given ale or beer to increase her milk. She should
continue her normal eating, take light exercise, which does not mean
the scrubbing of floors or doing the family washing, and live under
the same hygienic regime outlined for the nursing mother. Should she
be the mother of the second or third illegitimate child, then she is
quite likely to be mentally deficient and she should not be engaged.
Her own babe will have to be fed artificially as very few mothers can
endure the strain of two suckling children.

The baby's own mother should keep general supervision and not turn her
babe entirely over to the care of the wet nurse. Remember always that
no one in the wide world will ever take the same mother interest in
your offspring that can spring from your own mother heart.




CHAPTER XVI

THE BOTTLE-FED BABY


In taking up the subject of the bottle-fed baby, we must repeat that
the only perfect baby food on earth is the milk that comes from the
breast of a healthy mother.

But sudden illness, accident, chronic maladies, or possibly the death
of the mother, often throw the helpless babes out into a world of many
sorts and kinds of artificial foods--foods that are prepared by
modifying cow's, ass', or goat's milk; foods arranged by the addition
to the milk of various specially prepared cereals, albumens or malted
preparations, otherwise known as "proprietary foods." We shall
endeavor, then, in this chapter and in that on "the feeding problem,"
to lay down certain general suggestions to both the nurse and the
mother, which may assist them in their effort to select the food which
will more nearly simulate nature's wondrous mother-food, and which
will, at the same time, be best suited to some one particular baby.


THE HOURLY SCHEDULE

The normal baby, from birth to six months, should receive properly
prepared nourishment every three hours, beginning the day usually at
six A. M., the last feeding being at nine P. M. During the early weeks
an additional bottle is given at midnight, but this is usually
discarded at four months, at which time the last feeding should be
given at about ten instead of at nine at night.

Should the baby continue to awaken during the night before six in the
morning, unless he is under weight, a bottle of warm, boiled,
unsweetened water should be given.

Copyright (c) 2007. topboookz.com. All rights reserved.