ivilised people have made our own difficulties. We have
exaggerated the completeness of the sudden separation of mother and
child which nature decrees. It is the function of all mother animals
to approximate the unstable temperature of the newly born to their own
by the close contact of their bodies, which provide just the proper
heat. Labour is nowadays so complicated and exhausting a process for
mothers that, all things considered, we are wise in completing the
separation of mother and child and in removing the baby to his own
cot. But the difficulty remains, and we must arrange that any
artificial heating needed is constant and of proper degree.

If the baby is very restless and irritable, too wide awake and too
conscious of his surroundings, the all-important task of getting him
to the breast and getting him to draw the milk into the breast is apt
to be difficult. His sucking is a purely reflex and involuntary act.
It can be produced by anything which gently presses down the tongue,
and a finger placed in the proper position will provoke the movement
without the child's consciousness being aroused. The placid child
whose mind is at rest will suck well and strongly. If, on the other
hand, the brain is too much stimulated and the child is restless and
irritable, the reflex act of suction is inhibited, and it is a
difficult matter to get the child to the breast. He is too eager,
mouthing, and gulping, and spluttering. Or sometimes his mental
sufferings seem too much for his appetite, and though wide awake and
crying loudly, he refuses to grasp the nipple, turning his head away
and wriggling blindly hither and thither. This effect of mental unrest
on the newborn infant is often disastrous, because it is one of the
common causes of the failure of women to nurse their children. This is
not the place to sketch in detail a scheme for the proper technique of
breast nursing, a matter which is much misunderstood at the present
day. It will be enough shortly to say that an efficient supply of milk
depends upon the complete and regular emptying of the breast. The
breasts of all mothers will secrete milk if strong and vigorous
suction is applied to the nipple by the child. If anything interferes
with suction, the milk does not appear or, if it has appeared, it
rapidly declines in amount. The mother's part is to a great extent a
passive one, provided that she can supply one essential--a nipple that
is large enough for the child to