her physical
condition is not given the study and care which she ought to give it. She
does not understand the importance of the hygiene of pregnancy, and the day
of the confinement finds her more or less exhausted, and worn out. She
passes through the crisis of maternity, however, and spends the customary
ten days in bed. At the end of that period the nurse and physician leave
her to face the most important problem of life alone. She is a mother, and
has in her exclusive charge a human life.

Let us exactly understand what the real situation is. It would not further
the object of this book or help in the solution of the problem the author
has in mind to depict a false situation. We must concede the following[132]
facts to be true, if we understand the subject:

1. That the mothers of the human race are, in the vast majority, the poor.

2. That they are uneducated in the sense that they are not versed in the
science of hygiene and sanitation, and consequently health preservation.

3. That even the fairly well educated are innocently ignorant of the
science of heredity, environment, hygiene, sanitation and health
preservation.

4. That to benefit the majority we must depict conditions as they exist
among the poor, and reason from that standard.

Such books as have been written on this subject have based their facts upon
too high a plane. Their remedies are beyond the means and the understanding
of the average poor mother. Their analogies are based upon conditions that
exist among the better class. The average poor housewife gets no practical
assistance or help from their deductions, because her environment precludes
any utilization of the data furnished; the data is not practical in her
particular case.

Our young mother is in all probability a physically and mentally immature
girl. She most likely entered the marriage relationship without a real
understanding of its true meaning, or even a serious thought regarding its
duties or its responsibilities. She was not taught the true meaning of
motherhood before actual maternity was thrust upon her. She has probably
innocently acquired habits which are detrimental to her health and her
morals; and she has no conception of the fundamental duties of a homemaker.
Yet into the keeping of this woman a human life has been given.

Her home surroundings are not such as to inspire confidence or from which
to elicit encouragement. It has been a struggle to make ends meet; to ke