Originally written in 1948 for Notes and Comments in Medical Officer, this was reprinted in the Keeping Abreast Journal in 1977 as What Goes Around Comes Around......

"Thirty years ago [1918] the 'science' of the time led to the conclusions that infants should sleep in cots separate from their mothers; that they should be fed by the clock and scale; and so on through the whole ritual of confinement, which was rigidly enforced. But it did not work... The primary needs of the infant are support, warmth and nourishment.  These are naturally supplied by the mother without the help from anyone or anything else. Their dispensation gives emotional satisfaction to both the mother and the infant; so why should we interfere with it? We can give the infant the support of the cot, the warmth of an electric blanket, and the nourishment of a chemical concoction. These may serve; but they are not so good as what a mother can supply, and they give her no satisfaction.  The separation is not sound physiology. That this has serious results should be obvious also...There seems to be no doubt that anything which separates the mother and infant, or interferes with her desire to possess her baby, inhibits lactation.  Some years ago when the question of feeding the baby around the clock came up for reconsideration, it dawned on us that if the mother did not feed the baby when she wanted to do so, and the baby was not feed when he wanted to be, the whole milk business got out of gear. Physiological rhythms, timing and coordination have to develop and cannot be forced. The baby is the only person who knows what he wants, so we must learn from him, not dictate to him; and the person most able to understand his expressions is mother." 

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