OUR BABIES.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1954, 10 January 1914, Page 11

OUR BABIES.

TBI ETGIU.I Published nndtr tho auipioet of tho Society for the Health of Women and Children. "It !■ wiMr to put up a fonoe at tho top of a procisla* than to maintain an ambulance at tlio bottom." NOTE.—TIio Socioty strongly disapproves of the use of artificial foods as a substitute for mothero' or humanised milk. Full directions for tho preparation of tho latter ar« contained in the Society's pamphlet •ntitlod "What Baby Keeda." DR. KING'S LECTURE . (Continued). Shortly before I left New Zealand I was asked to' write a Government pamphlet in harmony with the sociofcy'6 recommendations, for issue by the Public Health Department to all mothers within a few days after childbirth. Thirty thousand copies of this, in the form of an illustrated brochure of somo 50 pages, entitled "Baby's First Month," costing some hundreds of pounds, were struck oft' as a first issue. It may be assumed that this will represent the annual output, as our births number somo 25,000 a year, and expectant mothers will be encouraged to obtain and study the pamphlet rather than await its receipt in ordinary course through the post after notification of birth. Presently we purpose issuing a third pamphlet —logically tho first of the sorles—especially addressed to expectant mothers. The second period (from birth to the end of the first month) will be coveredl by "Baby's First- Month," wliilo tho whole period of motherhood and infancy is dealt with broadly and in detail in "Feeding and Care of Baby." SERIES OF CONSISTENT PUBLICATIONS. For the sake of continuity, and to prevent unnecessary repetition, these threo publications will contain cross references from one to the (jther. Further, we are constantly referring parents to our fixed publications in dealing with questions answered in the weekly "Our Babies" newspaper columns, which is read almost universally by mothers throughout the Dominion. I submit that a consistent series of authoritative pamphlets and newspaper articles on the above lines is much more effective and) helpful than anv single book covering t'he whole ground could be. The young married woman or expectant mother wants to know what ehe ought to bo doing to-day, to-morrow, or next week; not) what she may pos-

MODEL OF A BATHING SUIT. sibly have to be thinking about six months or a year or so lionco. Thus, for tho husband and the lying-in-mother thero are a series of practical, economic, and other considerations, of vital importance, which apply almost eolely to the month following childbirth, and those should be clearly sot forth, unhampered by matters which have no relevenacy whatever to tlio momentous epoch. We can best attain to clear thinking and sensible conduct and habits on tho part of parents by concentrating attention on tho more urgent necessities of tho moment, and of tho time immediately ahead. This wo effect, partly through the agency cf spccially-trained nurses and members of tho society, and partly by means of printed matter, lectures, eto. Having once gained the interest of the mother, and won her confidence by manifest benefits accruing to herself and her child through obedienco to tho laws and needs of life—having attained so much, experience has shown us that parents (particularly men) will read and follow with absorbing interest whatever one chooscs to sot before them. Indeed, interest in national bodily fitness and public health can be attained only through natural unselfish lovo of children and devotion to their welfaro. Wo find that the average man or woman apoealed to, reasoned with, and trained in tho right way will do anything for tho health and wellbeing of offspring, though they may bo almost absolutely indifferent as to their own physical fitness, until thov have been brought to see personal health in tho light of a duty and trust —to see it as something which always, directly or indirectly, benefits others, and to see ill-health and disease, not only as a curso and blight to tho family, but as something unworthy and utterly unpatriotic in its tendencies. As Stevons of Ladysmith said, tho very children "ought to bo taught that sickness is a badge of inferiority; that to bo healthy is the primo condition of all things desirable in lifo. Such an might bo trusted to breed healthy bodies controlled by healthy minds." In other words, rear and train our children properly, and our grown men and women may bo trusted to look after themselves. Tha Karltano-Harrls Hospital. Within a few months of tho foundation of tho society, n, hospital devoted to babies—tho first in Australasia—was established. Starting with a few .local babies, this institution now receives infants from all | parts of tho Dominion. When I left Now Zealand thero wore 24 inmates

under care—viz: 21 babies and three mothers. In one sense, the healing of sick babies is tlio least important aspect of our hospital work. Tho institution is a school for mothers, an cvor-open obiectIcsson, by moans of which some thousands of visitors of all classes see and aro taught personally every year the essentials for healthy motherhood and babyhood, while mothers who have any trouble with their babies are encouraged to become inmates for week or ten days, so that they may be set on tho right track. Most women, on returning to their homes, become centres of light and leading for their friends and. neighbours; thus, health reform spreads from homo to home and from district to district. Not only is the hospital held available for tho teaching of actual mothers; but jvo encourage potential mothers — girls in their teens and expectant mothers—to attend weekly lessons and demonstrations, or to enter the institution for a short course of training. Further, a guild of 60 girls was organised some years ago, each to spend an afternoon once a montlr handling and looking after the babies in tho grounds, thus helping to provide the "mothering element, apt to bo lacking jn institutions, and at the same time implanting and developing motherly tendencies and aptitudes in the girls themselves. _ La-st, but not least, the KaritaneHarris Hospital is used by the university as the institution for the practical and clinical teaching of pediatrics to our medical students, ana by Miss Boyes Smith, the Professor of Domestic Science, for teaching her students this aspect of their work. (To be continued.) Glaxo Builds Bonny Babies. —Advt.