The Rights of Infants: By Margaret A. Ribble. New York: Columbia University Press, 1943. 118 pp.

To further the study of infants, child analysts have founded nurseries here and abroad and have studied and assisted in obstetric and pediatric wards. Margaret Ribble has observed six hundred infants in three maternity wards in New York City. The results of her study are correlated in this excellent book. She convincingly proves that babies need 'mothering' in addition to routine physical care. Mothering increases breathing which at birth is still shallow and inadequate. Deep breathing is important for the brain which needs an abundant oxygen supply for its development during the first months of life. Sucking increases breathing and because it also satisfies a deep inner need, it should be encouraged from the start; if the infant cannot suck spontaneously it should be taught. The author cites many examples which show how infants need to be fondled, talked to and sung to. The word 'stimulus hunger' is introduced to indicate the baby's need for physical contact which precedes the real longing for the mother as a love object. Lack, or a sudden interruption of stimulus hunger, may throw a baby back to a much lower level of physical functioning or result in an emotional withdrawal which may well become a pattern for reaction to frustration in