78 INFANTS' MILK DEPOTS 



must be created. As a general principle, the same rules of 

 accessibility which govern the establishment of a commercial 

 milk store apply to the establishment of a depot. Where mothers 

 will go for milk, they will also go for instruction. The important 

 thing is to find a convenient central place for milk distribution, 

 and then, if no accommodations for instructional work are 

 offered, to attach to this place the necessary comfortable and 

 attractive rooms. 



Ideally, there should be one room for milk dis- 

 ROOMS : tribution, and one or more rooms for the educational 

 and social work among the mothers. At the start, 

 however, many makeshifts may be necessary. When only a few 

 mothers are in attendance, it is quite feasible at the first for 

 the milk to be distributed and the consultations held in the same 

 room. This room may be the basement room of a settlement; 

 a room in a cheap apartment; a room in some municipal build- 

 ing ; a lunch room in a school house, or one of many other kinds. 

 It makes very little difference what the room is, provided it can 

 be reached easily. Its proximity to the mother's home is, as I 

 have said before, the essential factor. 



The equipment of a depot may be as simple 

 EQUIPMENT : or elaborate as one wishes. A refrigerator for 



the milk, a plain wooden table and an inex- 

 pensive account book are all that are actually needed for milk 

 distribution; whereas the essentials for educational work consist 

 of a pair of scales to weigh the babies and the few simple utensils 

 which the nurse uses in making her demonstrations and in 

 teaching the mothers the feeding and care of their infants. The 

 maximum equipment would provide pictures, window curtains, 

 flowers, comfortable chairs, a coat of white enamel and all the 

 perquisites of a well-appointed settlement. Such a depot is to 

 the mother as a haven of rest, a fair oasis in the desert of her 

 existence, a stimulus to cleaner living and an inspiration to better 

 motherhood. 



The selection of a nurse is most important, 

 THE NURSE : as her personality is the soul of the depot, her 



tact and sympathy the keynote of its success. 

 She should be a woman thoroughly acquainted with feeding and 

 care of infants, of some social experience and fitness, intelligent 

 and capable. A sympathetic nurse, who wins the respect and 

 confidence of her mothers, will accomplish far more than a nurse 

 who understands the theory of infant feeding and hygiene, but 

 whose heart is not in the work. Wherever possible the nurse 

 should speak the predominant language of her neighborhood. If 

 she cannot speak this language, the difficulty may be partly over- 

 come by securing interpreters to do this work for her. 



