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.