OUR BABIES.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1889, 18 October 1913, Page 11

OUR BABIES.

TBI EIOBU.I

Pub!ith«d nnder the ausploei of the Society for th» Health of Women »nd Children.

"It ii wiser to pot up » fenoe it tie top of a. prooiplo* than to maintain m tmbulanco at tne bottom."

NOTE—The Society strongly disapproves of the use of artificial foods as a. substitute for mothers' or humanised milk. Full directions for the preparation of the latter are contained in tho Society's pamphlet • entitled "What Baby Needß." "THE BETTER DEAD SCHOOL." Both at the Infantilo Mortality Con': gross and at the subsequent International Medical Congress the speeches of John Burns, as Minister of Publio Health, summarised in last week's issue, were characterised by the great forcefulness of the terse saying with which he clinched his arguments. On the opening day nothing went home with nis great audiences moro than his emphatic statement: "I don't belong to the 'bettor-dead' school." He had/beeni explaining that throughout their work for the betterment of motherhood and babyhood in England they had been opposed and assailed for a lone time by people who_ had said (exactly as similar people said in New Zealand in the early days of our society) that the babies who were being saved would be "better dead." Again and again ho returned to the point: "You understand then, clearly, that I have no sympathy whatever with the 'better-deads' 1" Just as we have urged again and again in New Zealand tnat our real objective was not so much a reduction in the death-rate as the advancement of the health and fitness of Che whole community, so John, Burns thundered and pleaded for a recognp tion. of the fact that the factors adverse to health which tend to kill children in the first year of life also debilitate and maim more or less those who survive, and thus iend to weaken and incapacitate the whole race. OPPOSITION TO REFORM. It is interesting to have ■ brought homo to one, in this city of many millions, how similar is the opposition to reform to that which one meots with in a now country; but to us who livo in the colonies, and in younger communities in general, these world-con-ferences bring a great encouragement in the revelation of how much less formidable is our barrier of engrained prejudice and error than the dead wall of unchcangeablenoss which often confronts those who devoto themselves to the improvement of publio health on tfiis side of the,world.

In general, nothing oould have been in strongor contrast than the sanguino and progressive attitude of tho New World delegates and members (Americans and Australasians) as oompared with the English health authorities, in spite of all the progress that has been made here.

Tho younger peoples showed a faith and optimism as regards further hettorment which found little responso. Thus tho Commonwealth representative, backed by the delegates from Canada and New Zealand, twice brought forward a proposal that the Congress should make an emphatic pronouncement as to what should be regarded as an average normal infantilo 'death-rate among babies for any ordinary country—in other words, a "survival rate," which every country ought to aspire to —a rate to fall below which would bo regarded as reprehensible, and at least calling for inquiry and investigation. An "infant survival rate" of 95 per cent (that is a death-rate of 6 per cent.) was suggested a3 reasonably attainable, and as something to aspire to. Unquestionably the colonial representatives were right tvhen-they said that It was far. more stimulating for communities to have reasonable ideals set before them to. work up to than for - communities :; to be encouraged to pat themselves on the back when they managed to get their iiitantlle death-rates below the high mortalities of peoples moro negligent than themselves. Ac regards the London Infantile Dfeath Rate, to which I havo referred, one feols what a wonderful improvement has been effected by the London County Council and other bodies in improving all-round hygieno conditions; but the quoted infantile death-rate of 9} per cent, is misleading, because that figure is simply the lowest attained, not tlie average for the last two or ihree years, which is much higher. [t is remarkable, as I shall show later, how little is being done in England in tho direction or bringing the rising generation of dootors abreast of the scientific and practical advances made in the care of mother and child during the last 20 years, and especially during the last 10 years. Not only is this true as_ regards the medical profession, but it is even more true as regards the groat mass of the population.