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Show By Edna Mae Mclnloih "If I didn't have to treat the mothers as well as the babies, I'd spend about one-third the time I ;now do on my practice." These are the words of a woman pediatrician, pedia-trician, who is also a successful 'homemaker and the mother of two handsome, well adjusted, teen-age children. This baby specialist did not have reference to the physical ills of mothers but to various personality per-sonality traits which complicate the picture, with either the well or sick baby. The above observation is typical of the attitude expressed today by leaders in all fields of child care. ;A quick glance through newspaper and magazine articles devoted to this subject indicates a shift of the responsibility for behavior problems prob-lems from babies to parents. "Maternal "Ma-ternal Overprotection" was the title of a paper recently read before be-fore a southern medical convention. Over-anxiety, competition with other mothers and babies, too rigid adherence to schedule and feeding direction, confused ideas of child i care (due to multiple sources of j advice) and poor examples set by family members all tend to complicate com-plicate the situation. One physician physi-cian has expressed the opinion that the top factor, leading to the over-solicitous over-solicitous attitude, is the mother's desire to manage and direct completely com-pletely the child who for the time being is the mother's whole world. No group in the world is more sympathetic to the genuine problems prob-lems of motherhood than the medical medi-cal profession. No amount of time and inconvenience is too much to give when the baby's welfare is really at stake. But in this dav. when a shortage of physicians still exists, wouldn't it be well for most mothers to consider if she is really a. help or a hindrance to her baby's doctor? Were you an "overpro-tecting "overpro-tecting mother" today? |