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Appendix II.
ADVICE TO MOTHERS.
The Public Health Committee of the Woolwich Borough Council
is advised that much ill-health in married women, and much sickness
and many deaths of infants are due to want of knowledge among
mothers of certain simple rules for preserving their own health
and having healthy children. They have accordingly directed the
following plain rules to be prepared and distributed :-
(a) Health of Mothers.
1. It is most important that a woman who knows she is about to
become a mother should study her own health from the very first.
The chief requisites are a proper diet, suitable clothing, fresh air,
exercise and cleanliness.
2. Food should be plentiful, but light and simple. Oatmeal
porridge and milk form an excellent breakfast or supper. As much
milk as possible should be taken, but no beer, wine or spirits, unless
specially ordered by a medical man. Stimulants, as commonly taken,
do harm to both mother and child and are a frequent cause of premature
birth, still-births, and loss of breast milk. Tea should be taken
weak, and only once or twice a day. Coffee and cocoa are better.
Whole-meal bread or household bread made from seconds flour is
more wholesome than white bread, and pea-soup and lentil-soup are
more nourishing than beef or mutton. Nursing-mothers should take
at least a pint of milk a day, which it is safer to boil.
3. During pregnancy the mother's clothes should be easy and
loose. No corsets should be worn. Tight corsets are most injurious.
Pressure on the breasts must be specially avoided as it may cause
the nipples to be pressed in and make suckling difficult or impossible.
4. The. breasts should be specially prepared during the last two
months of pregnancy. Night and morning the nipples should be
washed and afterwards bathed with a mixture of equal parts of
methylated spirits and olive oil. This will prevent cracked and
painful nipples while suckling.