Chavasse’s Advice to a Wife on the Management of her own Health and on the Treatment of some of the Complaints incidental to Pregnancy, Labour, and Suckling. 17th ed.

c. 1908

Truby King Collection HQ 759 CG51 1883

London: J. & A. Churchill

From his observations of rearing calves, breast-feeding mothers in Japan, and the many patients at Seacliff who had been bottle-fed in infancy, Truby King thought breast milk was the ‘perfect food’ for baby. He wrote: ‘Nothing can rival milk drawn direct from the breast into the baby’s stomach’ and that ‘vigorous suckling should be encouraged’. He also believed that a strict regime of four-hourly feeds and no night feeds was essential; an idea he may have gleaned from Chavasse’s Advice to a Wife, featured here. Chavasse (1810-79) was an English surgeon who wrote many treatises on motherhood.