84 INFANTS' MILK DEPOTS 



resents a special interest, such as a nurse representing the 

 nursing- features of the work, a pediatrician representing the 

 problem of infant feeding, a social worker representing social 

 problems, an educator representing the educational side of the 

 work, etc. If the director of the society maintaining depots has 

 time and the inclination to devote to this work, he might be 

 chairman of the committee. Such a committee, with the super- 

 vising nurse as its executive, is, in my opinion, the best way to 

 manage and control the work carried on in infants' milk depots. 



Lastly, the work of infants' milk 



CO-ORDINATION: depots must be co-ordinated with the 

 work of hospitals, clinics, dispensaries, 



floating hospitals, fresh-air homes, day nurseries and all agencies 

 which are interested in the baby problem. Before birth the depot 

 nurse, through her intimate knowledge of these agencies, will 

 assume the responsibility of preparing mothers for a successful 

 delivery. After the baby is born she will continue to look after 

 it, and will place at the mother's disposal every known means 

 of bringing it to strong and healthy childhood. The milk depot 

 is the natural co-ordinating unit in all this work because of its 

 proximity to the home. If infant- mortality is to be prevented 

 and not cured, the home must be the crucial place of attack. 



I look forward to the time when more efTec- 

 EN AVAUNT: tive ways of co-operation and co-ordination 

 can be worked out between milk depots which 

 reach directly into the homes and hospitals, dispensaries and 

 clinics which care for babies on a larger institutional scale, as I 

 believe it is desirable that the assistance and supervision exercised 

 over mothers from the period before confinement until the child 

 is weaned should be as uniform as possible with respect to in- 

 struction given and methods taught. Probably some day the 

 instructional work to prevent infant mortality which at present 

 is carried on in the depots, being paid for either by philanthropy 

 or given gratuitously by physicians, will be taken over by our 

 cities or towns. Already in New York City we have seen organ- 

 ized the Bureau of Child Hygiene, with the great corps of nurses 

 working at least during the summer among the babies, and it is 

 not unreasonable to expect this work in New York City and else- 

 where to continue permanently throughout the year. Arousing 

 present and future mothers to a full consciousness of the sig- 

 nificance of child birth and the responsibilities of motherhood 

 is surely equally important as the teaching of Greek and algebra 

 to children who will perhaps never make any practical use of 

 their knowledge along these lines. Whether it is for the State 

 or for private individuals ultimately to handle the problem of 

 milk distribution is a disputed question, but we must all admit 



