View report page

38
sleeping separate from its mother.

It is to be feared that the disparity in the percentage of
breast fed infants sleeping with their mother, as compared with
the percentage of the hand fed is to be explained on grounds of
maternal convenience.
Where a baby is nursed, it is certainly more convenient for
the mother to have her infant in bed with her than to be put to
the trouble of reaching it from its cot when it is fed. But mothers
should know that they purchase this slight gain in personal
comfort at the cost of their infants' rest and comfort and health,
and above all at serious menace to its life from suffocation.
No fewer than 14 deaths were caused during the year by
suffocation in bed, due to this most indefensible practice. Accidents
from all causes at all ages were accountable for a total of 52 deaths
during the year, and 14, more than a fourth of this total, were
due to overlaying.
Consider the elaborate legislative and administrative measures
which have been concerted with a view to diminish the risk of
injury and death from accident—the Factory Acts, the Employers
Liability Act, the Board of Trade Regulations, the army of
inspectors, and the inventive and administrative ingenuity devoted