OUR BABIES.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1824, 9 August 1913, Page 11

OUR BABIES.

fßi Htgeia.l

Published under tho auspices of the Society for tho Health of Women and Children. . "It ia. wiper to put up a fonoe at the top of.a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." PRE-NATAL CARE.' The importance of pre-natal caro was emphasised at the animal meeting of the American Association for Studv and Prevention of Infant Mortality. /Mrs. William Lowell Putnam, the chairwoman of the Women's Municipal League, of Boston, writes:— "It was to demonstrate what gain would result from pre-natal care that the league began its experiments in April, 1909. The results have proved so satisfactory that last year tho Boston Lying-in Hospital established a pre-natal clinic, with a visiting nurse, to carry oil tho work prcvoiusly done for their houso patients by tho league. Tho Boston Board of Health also began in 1911 to send nnrses throughout the <city to care for mothers and babies before as well as after birth.

"The principle of tho league hae been that pregnancy is a normal function, and should not onljvbe entered upon, but carried through,' under as normal conditions as possible—not' in a rest houso. bnt in 'the woman's house—and that if the homo conditions are wrong the remedy lies not in removing tho woman, but in improving tho home. The number of patients cared for thus far has-been between 12C0 and 1300, and they liavo been ordinary women living under ordinary conditions. Most of tham are of tho working class, which Iras but little or no 'margin in money matters, dependent wholly on daily work for daily broad. "Tlisy have come under tho care of the league in various ways—reported by maternity ■ hospitals, dispensaries, charitable agencies, and individuals, and a few by private physicians. We insist that all shall bo under medical care, for neither nurse nor layman should assume medical responsibility. ~ • "The routine of the committee calls for a visit at least every ten days, however well tho patient may be, and, if anything untoward arises, visits are made as much oftener as may be necessary. The nurse

the committee is trying to lower the rate of infant mortality by persuading tho Boston School Committee to introduce teaching in the oare of babies into tho regular curriculum for girls of the seventh and eighth grades of tho grammar schools. Not only would it help t.ho babies of today, for theso girls aro the little mothers to whom ■ tho care of tho baby is often confided by the overworked mother; but the babies of the next generation would profit oven more, for the future mothers would not then start with an ignorance so crass as only to be believed when seen. This teaching wohld mean an even earlier start than pre-natalecare, and yet it docs not supersede it, for nothing can ever do that, not even eugenics, when it shall liavo become exalted and glorified." Glaxo Builds Bonny Babies.—Advt,