OUR BABIES.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1878, 11 October 1913, Page 11

OUR BABIES.

fBT HIOIU.I

Published nnikr tho atuspio#s of th« 80rioty- for the Health of Woraon Mid Children. . .

"It is wlmt to pat up a (oncw tt tho top of a pmlploo th&n to maintain «® unon* lanot at th* bottom."

NOTE.—Tko Society strongly disapproves of the us© of a/rtlflclal foods ag a substitute for mothers' or humanised milk. Full directions for tho preparation of the latter are contained in the Sooiefcy's pamphlet eiititlod "What Baby Needs."

TEE ENGLISH-SPEAKING CONFER- " ENCE ON INFANTILE MORTAL-

ITY. At tho beginning of August a conference of English-speaking people on Infjiitilo Mortality was held in the Caxton Hall, Westminster, London. The conference was largely attended by'the leading physicians whose specialty is the care of children, including many Americans, as well as representatives from all parts of the United Kingdom and from the Continent and Australasia. Besides medical officers of health, nurses, and paid health' visitors, many voluntary workers were present, and some of them read papers on the work done by the various local communities which they represented. Tho main difference/between tho work of our society and that done in other ■parts of the English-speaking world is (1) That in New Zealand we have consistent teaching throughout the

whole Dominion. (2) That our teaching is for all classes in the community. In England each province sends out its own book of advice, and_ nothing has been done to co-ordinato what has been arrived at by tho greatest authorities as being the best for mother and child. Further, in England the work done is almost entirely for the submerged or poorer classes. The idea of the women of a oountry banding themselveß together to find out what is best for the health of themselves and their children, while appealing "la members of the congress as a fine ambition, seemed to them altogether outside the bounds of what is practicable. They said tifat women at Eome were different from ours —that one cannot £et them to take serious and continuous interest in such matters. Of course, we know that women all the world over are much the same, and that 'once they understand the real magnitude of the problem they would be as keen and earnest as in New Zealand. The simple fact is that no consistent teaching in this connection Is available here. It is a great pity that the conference did not ask tno various members, bost qualified to deal with _ the subieot to draw up Bn authoritative pamphlet as a guide for all those interested In the Health of Children throughout tho land. However, the time was not ripe for such a measure. Very great interest

was manifested in our work and propaganda, and on all hands thero was a keen desire to have copies of everything that the society had published. A few of the more conservative members of tho medical profession thought that in England only a few exceptional women could be induced to take a rational interest in the health of themselves and their children on the advanced lines advocated by tho society; but all' wore agreed that the kind of information Now Zealand is conveying to its mothers would be highly beneficial to the race if parents could only he .led to tako the matter as seriously as it deserves.. Further, among those who had already had copies of the society's books and pamphlets not a single question was raised as to the correctness and desirability of our work and advice; and in general the members spoke with very frank appreciation of what is being done by the society.

As for our results, while not doubting tho benefits which had accrued from the enthusiastic and earnest way in which tho women of New Zealand have tacklcd the problem, the tendency in almost every case was to fall back more or less on our glorious climate and our living in fortunate little islands, which were the happy, Bun-lit gardens of the world, as the fundamental reason why the English infantile death-rate stands to-day so much .above that of New Zealand.

One puzzlod member of tho congress got involved in a curious speculation, in which ho tried to account for the relatively low death-rato among babies in the Dominion on the assumption that we had been wise in not encouraging over-population, and then inconsistently wanderod on to say that, whereas in othor countries a rise in tho birth-rate had always beon attended with a higher

infantile death-rate, in Now Zealand tho reverse had been the case —in other words, that, notwithstanding an increase in tho birth-rate of Tate there had actually been a very marked fall in our baby death-rate.

JOHN BURNS'S ADDRESS. John Burns's inaugural address at the I Caxton Hall was a lengthy and forceful summing up of the position in England, especially from the statistical point of view. He dwelt with natural pride, on tho remarkable lowness of the infantile death-rat© of London, as compared with that of other great crowded Old \\orid cities, drawing special attention to the fact that the mortality for the past year was only 9J per cont., whereaß m Burncy (Lancashire) it was 17,. per cent. Analysing London itself, he showed that in Shoreditch the infantile death-rato was 14J, whereas in the district of Battersea, with which his lirawork has been so closely identified, the death-rato for the past year was only 8 per cent. He inferred not unreasonably that tho favourable position of Battersea as regards the publio health was largely attributable to tho forethought and sound common sense of those who ,witb himself, had boen doing their best for over a quarter of a cenr tury to improve the social and sanitary condition of the district and the health of its people.

FACTORY mothers. Dealing with broad general principles he was eloquent and scathing in lus denunciation of the_ disastrous results which had accompanied the dratting or women out of their homes into factories without any provision whatever for safeguarding mother and child. This, he showed, accounted for the deplorable state of motherhood m Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, and. other industrial centres, and led to his suggestion that the next Congress on Infant Mortality should bo held in ona of these cities.