Motherhood
P. 7 The first requisite to the proper discharge of the important duties of a mother, is a due and entire acquaintance with the physical wants of children. It has been frequently observed, that of all animals children are the most helpless when the first come into the world; how necessary, then is it, that those who have the care of their earliest existence should be well acquainted with the signs and tokens of their physical demands upon their attention and care. Let no mother, unless under circumstances of the most pressing necessity, consign the entire care and management of her infant to another. God has given her peculiar sensibilities, which no one, standing in a more remote connection with the child, can possess, and it is therefore her peculiar duty, and ought to be her most delightful occupation, to minister to the necessities of the helpless being committed to her care. She who can voluntarily abandon her offspring to the care of others, forfeits all claim to the sacred name mother.