208 NURSING STATISTICS FROM STUDY OF 1500 CHILDREN 



We should not be satisfied with the idea that maternal lacta- 

 tion is a disappearing function, as expressed in a recent paper 

 on the conservation of child life. As far as we in America are 

 concerned, we do not know whether or not it is a disappearing 

 function, and the more I am beginning to know about it the 

 more I feel that this is not so. The work of this clinic, then, has a 

 two- fold object: First, the propaganda of breast feeding, in- 

 cluding the education of mothers, physicians and nurses, and, 

 secondly, the gathering of statistical knowledge which might 

 bear some relation to infant mortality. 



In the following tables I will present a few statistics on 

 breast feeding which I have compiled by following each child 

 until it has become a bottle baby. 



TABLE I 



RESULTS IN BREAST FEEDING, 19O8-191O 



This shows that 96 per cent, of our babies were able to take 

 the breast for one month or less, that 88 per cent, were on the 

 breast for three months and 77 per cent, for six months. This 

 table also gives an idea of the kind of follow-up work which is 

 possible, for we have been able, for instance, to observe the same 

 928 babies for six months and at the end of our second year 

 report upon 462 babies which we have followed for one year. 

 Of 36 women who could not nurse at all, 6 had inverted nipples, 

 or 3-10 per cent, of the entire number of women under observa- 

 tion; 11 had tuberculosis, who might have nursed if they had been 

 permitted to ; 4 had to work ; 1 was insane, and 6 were in the hos- 

 pital for various surgical reasons. So of 1,500 women we have 

 to report six who could not nurse on account of inverted nipples 

 and four who seemed to have no milk at all. All the others were 

 capable of nursing a few weeks to many months, as will be seen 

 from Table I. This proves very conclusively that if care is 

 taken from the very start most women can do something toward 

 nursing their children. 



