child needs the mother's chief care for a much longer period than
four weeks. Helme advocates the State prohibition of women's work
for at least six months after confinement. Where nurseries are
attached to factories, enabling the mother to suckle her infant
in intervals of work, the period may doubtless be shortened.

It is important to remember that it is by no means only the women
in factories who are induced to work as usual during the whole
period of pregnancy, and to return to work immediately after the
brief rest of confinement. The Research Committee of the
Christian Social Union (London Branch) undertook, in 1905, an
inquiry into the employment of women after childbirth. Women in
factories and workshops were excluded from the inquiry which only
had reference to women engaged in household duties, in home
industries, and in casual work. It was found that the majority
carry on their employment right up to the time of confinement and
resume it from ten to fourteen days later. The infantile death
rate for the children of women engaged only in household duties
was greatly lower than that for the children of the other women,
while, as ever, the hand-fed infants had a vastly higher death
rate than the breast-fed infants (_British Medical Journal_, Oct.
24, 1908, p. 1297).

In the great French gun and armour-plate works at Creuzot (Saône
et Loire) the salaries of expectant mothers among the employees
are raised; arrangements are made for giving them proper advice
and medical attendance; they are not allowed to work after the
middle of pregnancy or to return to work after confinement
without a medical certificate of fitness. The results are said to
be excellent, not only on the health of the mothers, but in the