PLUNKET SOCIETY SERVICES

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28262, 27 April 1957, Page 4

PLUNKET SOCIETY SERVICES

Suggested Payments By Mothers

Contending that one week’s child allowance for every newborn baby or 3d for every visit to a Plunket nurse, contributed by the mothers, would meet the financial requirements of the Plunket Society, a correspondent has written to the editor of “The Press” about the society’s national radio and telephone appeal to be held on May 14. The correspondent, “Facts,” says:— “So there will be another Plunket appeal for funds. Why? It is well known that if every mother would either give her first week’s child allowance to the society or pay 2d or 3d a visit, the society would, with the Government grant, be self-supporting. I am well aware of the wonderful work done by the Plunket and in Sir Truby King’s time many were unable to pay for advice given, and others were very willing to help. Things are different now and no family in New Zealand is unable to afford 3d a visit. It is less than the cost of one ice-cream. A change is needed; we cannot go on living in the past.”

“I am pleased that your correspondent has asked this question because it is one that the society continually has in mind,” said Mr J. A. White, chairman of the Christchurch appeal committee. “There are some very real and sound reasons why a charge on mother is not compulsory, although it is hoped that every mother will give what she can. “In the first place,” said Mr White, “the mothers are not the only ones who benefit. An infant welfare service is of benefit to the whole community—the parents, who are helped to keep their children well and contented; business people, because their employees are healthier if they had a good start in infancy; and because employees are happier and therefore more efficient if they are free from anxiety about their own children’s health and progress. Healthy children are surely the country’s greatest asset. “The cry ‘Make the mother pay’ will hamper the Plunket nurses in their work and, if repeated often enough, will make that work impossible,” said Mr White. “The provision of these services, free to every mother who needs them, is fundamental to the society’s work:. If a change were made, the careful and conscientious mother would continue to come to the Plunket rooms but the mother who most needs help in caring for her baby would be the most likely to stay away.”