SUMMARY OF CHAPTER VIII 



BREAST-FEEDING 



IT is not easy to present a concise summary of the work which has 

 been carried out upon breast-feeding, the importance of which it is 

 difficult to over-estimate. The evidence brought forward gives 

 no support to the statements which have been made to the effect 

 that the capacity for lactation is decreasing among women. Where 

 care is exercised and adequate attention paid to the necessary 

 details, the glands can in nearly all cases be brought into the 

 required degree of activity. 



Experience both in this country and in other countries shows 

 the advantage of allowing sufficient interval to elapse between the 

 times of feeding. There is abundant evidence to show that the 

 activity of the mammary gland depends greatly upon the stimulus 

 which it receives. Where high demands are made upon it, a much 

 greater amount of milk is secreted, and vice versa. The output 

 of milk is affected when the food-supply of the mother falls below 

 the physiological limit. 



CHAPTER VIII 



BREAST-FEEDING 



THE investigations which have been made in many countries into 

 the causes of the infantile death-rate have revealed a close connection 

 between the number of infants who are breast-fed and the number 

 who survive the first year of life. Setting aside the other factors 

 affecting infant life, the naturally-fed infant has a greatly superior 

 chance of surviving than its artificially-fed brother. During the 

 latter part of the nineteenth century a decrease appears to have 

 occurred in the amount of breast-feeding. This has been attributed 

 by some writers to a decrease in the capacity of the female of 



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