Clinical study of breast feeding in the first ten days of life

Abstract

The work for this thesis, "A Clinical Study of Breast- feeding in the first ten days of life ", was done at The Simpson Royal Maternity Hospital in Edinburgh during the summer of 1939. Active Service duties have delayed the writing of it till now - the autumn of 1942.The fact that I intended writing a thesis on breast -feeding amazed my many medical acquaintances - former fellow students. They could scarcely imagine that any one of us should have learnt enough to be able to write a thesis on this subject. One of my more facetious and accomplished friends - he qualified in our year with honours - dubbed me The only human breast pump north of the Tweed ". Such had been their experience of breast -feeding that the mention of it immediately conjured up the picture of a breast pump.Yet I possessed no special qualifications for writing on this subject. I had been a house physician at the Sick Children's Hospital in Edinburgh and had seen the ravages wrought by the artificial feed. It was this which finally made me decide to make the closer acquaintance of breast- feeding. Why had so many of the mothers of my former patients failed to breast-feed? "The milk failed" or "The milk did not suit the baby" seemed inadequate reasons. I was determined to find out.So it was in a pure spirit of quest that I approached this subject. I had no axe to grind, no point to prove. I looked not for my answer at the bottom of a test tube, but remembered the words of one of my former Chiefs "The Wards are the greatest of all research laboratories ".Whether I have found the true answer to my question is for the reader to decide. I am convinced I have discovered - that is the wrong word, I should have said, brought to light again - one of the main reasons. It is with these words that I close my thesis "Look after the teaching of nurses and .medical students, and breast- feeding will look after itself."