The care of infants : a manual for mothers and nurses / by Sophia Jex-Blake.

  • Sophia Jex-Blake
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The care of infants : a manual for mothers and nurses / by Sophia Jex-Blake. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    127/136 (page 107)
    IX.] the care of their infants. There is hardly any position so full of trust as that of a nurse, especially in the case of an inexperienced mother, and there is hardly any where abuse of this trust may be so disastrous in its consequences. A self-willed and conceited woman may neutralize all a mother’s efforts by disobeying her instruc- tions, or those of the doctor, oi* by giving un- authorised food or medicine on her own respon- sibility. Many a case of lifelong lameness has depended on some accident, trivial perhaps in the first instance, but neglected and thus rendered dangerous in consequence of the criminal silence of the nurse, who, to avoid blame, conceals the whole occurrence. Many a baby’s life again is rendered miserable, and his temper soured for years, by the thoughtless cruelty of an ill-tempered nurse, who vents her own annoyance by slapping her helpless charge while without power either of resistance or complaint. Let every mother watch carefully the way in which the nurse is received by the infant, whether he is eager to come to her arms, or shrinks away from her with significant timidity. Only the other day I heard of the case of a much-prized only child, whose parents hardly thought gold good enough for him, who was habitually beaten by a passionate nurse, until a stranger, who happened to enter the nursery, noticed how the child shrank away at her approach. Other nurses, more criminal still, will