OUR BABIES.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14888, 30 January 1914, Page 5

OUR BABIES.

« (By Htgeia.) (""'Weekly Press and Referee.") DR. KING'S LECTURE (Continued.) THE PLUNKET NURSES. Certificated hospital nurses who have undergono training in the institution, followed by an outside course among tho community, aro eligible for examination at tho end of from three to six months, with a view to appointment as "Plunket nurses," tho name given to our nurses owing to tho devoted part played by Lady Plunket, and our late Governor, Lord Plunket, who did everything in their power while in New Zealand to encourage, support, and build up the .society. Indeed, the original branches in the North Island wero formed and organised by Lady Plunket herself, and her untiring enthusiasm and personal, practical teaching were great factors in the success of the Society's health mission throughout the Dominion. In the part of their course outside the institution tho nurses aro taught how to help mothers of all classes tactfully in their own homes. They learn to apprehend rapidly the best place for the baby's bed, the best method of ventilating any room with tho means at hand; where to keep, and the best way to safeguard, milk in each of the homes; and the numberless simple practical points in household arrangement and management, which, added together, make all the difference to the baby, the difference between health and debility or actual sickness. " • * REDUCTION OF DEATH-RATE. Although the infantile death-rate in New Zealand was originally one of the most favourable in the world, and we wore told only a few years ago that it could not be appreciably lowered, the results have proved otherwise. To quote from" this year's report of the Dunedin branch of the Society:— 9 "The Society for the. Health of Women and Children was founded just five years ago. Taking the seven years, from 1900 to 1907, tho average deathrato among children under one year in Dunedin and suburbs was 8 per cent. For the last five years the average has been'6J per cent.; for the last three years-6 per cent.; for the last two. years 5 per cent.; and for the last year 4 per cent. If the infantile death-rato for the whole Dominion were similarly reduced from 8' per cent, to 4 per cent, it would mean a saving of nearly 900 lives every year. But that is not all. One must remember that, a reduction in the infantile death-rate involves a reduction in the death-rate among older ctildren also; indeed, looking ahead, it means a lower death-rate throughout tbo whole community. • * The following table shows how.many children die in tho first year of life for every 100 born.in the, following places: percent. St. Petersburg and Moscow (1910) 28 . Vienna (1910) ... ... 17 Berlin (1910) ... — 15i Glasgow (1910) - 14 Paris (1910) «.;.• ... 12 . London (1910) ... ... 10J Stockhom and Christiariia (1910) 8 J Dunedin (average mortality for seven years—l9oo-07) ... 8 Dunedin '(average infant mortality for last five years—l9o7-12) 6* Dunedin (average"infant mortality for lastj three years—l9o9-12) 6 Dunedin (average -infant mortality for last two years—l9lo-12) 5 Ihinedin (average" infant mortality for last .year (1911(12) ... 4 These figures', .for Dunedin, and periods, are reckoned to April, the I original closeof the society's year, not to the end, of the official year. The reason for contrasting,a group of years instead of giving * merely individual years for Dunedin;is to show the stable and sustained decline in the infantile death-rate from 1907 onward. The fall would have appeared more striking had the four later periods been compared, not with the average of the preceding seven years, but only with the year 1907, when the death-rate was 9£ per cent.; but this contrast would have been, misleading. Note the .extreme range of infantile mortality from the , death within a year of more than a quarter of the children born in St Petersburg and Moscow to the'death of? only one in 25 for Dunedin. Tho figures are almost as striking if taken for countries instead of cities. Thus, the latest annual statistics available show that out of 1000 children born there died in the first year of life: — In Russia, about ... • •■ 250 In Germany and Austria, about ..., •-• ••• 175 . In En eland and Wales (for 1910) ... . 117 In Norway (1903) ..." 76 New Zealand (1911) : - 56 Next to New Zealand, the Norwegian infantile death-rato is tho lowest in tho world. This is attributed to the fact that in Norway nearly all babies are suckled. . The Registrar-General for the Dominion, referring to a comprehensive worldwide statistical table given in the latest Official Year Book for New Zealand, says:—"This table, 'giving tho rates of infantile mortality in various countries and cities, shows that as regards the preservation of infant life far better conditions obtain in New Zealand than elsewhere." "But the Society is less concerned in reducing tho death-rate than in improvI ing the health, of the people. As a health society we are more interested in firtnlv establishing the all-round fitness of the 24,000 or 25,000 annual new ar% rivals who will lire than "we are in 'reducing the potential deaths from 2000 ito 1000. However, the problems aro intimately related, since the eimple hygienic measures which tend to prevent death in babyhood are also the measures which lay the foundations of strong, healthy* minds in sound,-endnr-i ing bodies for those who survive to be 1 our future men and women." In dealing with our infantile statistics i I have not entered into the part played by factors other than the Society's work, because t"hat would be beyond the scope of my paper: but in an exhaustive consideration of the subject one would have to take into account other aspects !of the work of khe Public Health Department, including tho establishment of maternity hospitals, etc.