thy woman.

Another mother was carefully instructed to drop into the eye of her baby
two drops of medicine every four hours. She was told and apparently
appreciated the urgent necessity of the medication as her baby's eye [127]
was badly infected. She was further told that if she did exactly as shown,
the eye would be better in two or three days, and if she did not, the other
eye would become infected, and blindness might result. She undertook to
carry out the directions faithfully. She absolutely failed, however, to
carry out the instructions. Her husband informed the physician on the
following day that she became so nervous and excited that she utterly
failed to treat the eye once, and when he and a sister offered their
assistance she became so unreasonable in her fear that "they might hurt the
baby" that it was impossible to do anything with her. Her sister was
finally shown how to do it and carried the case through quite successfully.

Inasmuch as this book is intended to convey helpful instruction to every
mother, the author would suggest to those of this type the necessity of
resisting this tendency. It is a matter of will power, just make up your
mind not to be silly and if you find that you cannot trust yourself to
follow instructions, let someone else do it. When the physician tells you a
certain thing must be done, and that no harm can result, do it, and don't
imagine all kinds of impossible happenings.

So much anguish and annoyance is caused in this world by imagining and
anticipating trouble, that half the pleasure of life is denied us. You
cannot do your whole duty by a helpless baby if you do not reason and act
upon sound judgment. Many babies are lost by mothers being afraid to do
what should be done, and what they know should be done. It is not what the
doctor does that brings a baby through a dangerous sickness; it is the
faithfulness of the nurse in carrying out his instructions that is
responsible for the outcome. A timid, halting, doubting nurse can quickly
undo all a physician hopes to accomplish; while a prompt, faithful nurse,
with initiative, and good judgment, can save a little life in a crisis,
even in the absence of the physician. Follow instructions implicitly, even
though the carrying out of the instructions seem to cause the baby pain and
suffering,--it is for the baby's best interest.

[128]
BIRTH MARKS.--Much has be