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B.—Breast-Feeding of Infants.
1.—That it is desirable that births should be registered within five days of
their occurrence as is required in the case of deaths by the Births and
Deaths Registration Acts, and be not delayed for six weeks and longer
as now by law permitted.
2.—That it is desirable that the municipal authority should obtain weekly
returns of births from the registrars.
3.—That it is desirable that the municipal authority should send to the
addresses of all mothers, furnished in the weekly returns, cards or
leaflets of advice, laying greatest stress on the improvement of antinatal
conditions, on the preparation for and maintenance of breastfeeding
of infants during the first nine months of life, and strongly
advising mothers not to wean their infants prematurely except upon
medical advice.
4.—That it is desirable that women inspectors should be appointed with a
view to the prevention of infantile mortality by selecting from the
weekly returns suitable cases amongst the poor for inquiry, affording
general information in the hygiene of nursing, and directing the
necessitous poor where to apply for such advice and assistance as may
be urgently required in order to maintain breast-feeding.
5.—That it is desirable that medical practitioners, midwives, and nurses, the
staffs of hospitals and dispensaries, and the religious, charitable and
social organisations should co-operate with the municipal authority in
endeavouring to encourage breast-feeding, and to diminish the infantile
mortality.
6.—That it is desirable that any suggestions or arrangements made by
medical practitioners or by the medical charities for the purpose of
advising nursing mothers with a view to preventing infantile mortality
should be communicated to the municipal authority in order that they
may be made known through the women inspectors.
7.—That it is desirable that the information should be spread broadcast that
breast-feeding is the most economical, easy, and safe mode of feeding
infants under nine months of age, with a view to reducing the number
of hand-fed sucklings to the smallest proportion possible.
C.—Premature Weaning.
1.—That it is undesirable that a suckling mother should be separated from
her infant, or the infant from the mother, except for reasons of ill-health
and under medical advice.
2.—That it is desirable that when a woman inspector has reason to believe
that a suckling mother is in a necessitous condition and unprovided
with sufficient food to enable her to maintain her own strength and
suckle her infant as well, she should endeavour to prevent weaning by
reporting the case to the charitable organisation most appropriate to
deal with the circumstances.