Babies are Human Beings. An Interpretation of Growth: By C. Anderson Aldrich and Mary M. Aldrich. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1938. 124 pp.

This cleverly written book is different from the usual books about nursery care. It does not concentrate on the technique of nursing, but rather calls attention to the faults and errors of routinized nursing care. Nursing care is in all times and in all societies the accumulated result of folklore and tradition modified by some of the current scientific conceptions. The authors convey to mothers and to nurses the scientific conception of modern psychology. This is the more necessary because our routinized nursing care overestimates the physical side of the development and forgets to satisfy the sensual and emotional needs of the baby.

The child is born with a 'Developmental Plan'. The developmental plan unfolds itself in the process of growth which involves of course, bodily and mental growth. The author's aim is to show that the development of body and psyche are different aspects of the same organic growth process and they are closely interrelated in every step of development. The most favorable conditions for growth are those which provide understanding of the growth changes. The authors' general criticism against conventional nursing care is, that while many aspects of this care tend to support the baby and smooth his path, other aspects of it, even during the first weeks of life, force a compromise upon him