OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2711, 4 March 1916, Page 10

OUR BABIES

i CBT HMEU.I

Published under tJic auspices of (ho Royal Now Zealand Health Souiety lor the licflltU of Women and. Children. "It is wiser 'to,put up a. fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." THE SOCIETY'S BOOK. The Society's book, entitlod, "Feeding and Caro of Baby," can be obtainod from the Matron, Karitane-Harris Hospital, the Plunket Nurses, and the honorary secretaries of tho Societies. Price, Is. As tho book has now been registered to go by magazine post, tho' postage is only l}d., including tho war stamp. "Feeding and Care of Baby" can also be obtained from the leading booksellers throughout tho Dominion. WAR AND THE BABIES. A very striking feature of tho leading English and Continental newspapers is the space and prominonce now boing given oil all hands to motherhood and flio problems and practical issues affecting infantile As tho waif- goc3 on the world is realising more and more the 'imperative need for doing the best for the rising generation of human beings, instead of concentrating .all at. tention on the rearing and improvement of.pigs and poultry, and leaving out of account tho need for thought any system in tho case of mankind. The following extracts from a column in tho London "Weekly Dispatch" of September 5, 1915, are typical:— How Are .We to Make up for Our Loss in Men P SAVE THE INFANTS! Thousands of young men are being killed in Europe daily. Britain is losing at a grievous rate the pick of her youth. . . , What are we going to do for tho children, who alone oan repair that loss ? Those aro the questions that are claiming, and will continue to claim, more and more attention with every month that passes. ... It cannot be too often repeated that there was never a time in our national history when it was more necessary for us to rear healthy offspring than now, WAKING THE SLEEPERS. Even the most Conservative English newspapers, such as the "Morning Post" and "Tho Times," now give ample space and prominence to problems of infant welfare. We have just received from Mr. Benjamin Broadbent the latest of several articles dealing with these matters, which are occupying first place in "The Times"; tho date on whi<jh the following article appeared was September 10, 1915:— \ WHERE NO BABIES DIE. AH EXPERIMENT AT VILLIERS LE DUC. LESSONS FOR. ENGLAND. (By Benjamin Broadbent.) The Early Notification of Births Act came unobtrusively into operation on September I; it deserves some indication of a publio welcome. There is no doubt whatever as to its good intent; il; aims at the preservation of human life arid health at the'time when the greatest dangers assail before birth and in tho perilous days and months that follow. Is it likely actually to offect this good purpose? So far as compulsion is concerned tho power of the Act is voty limited. The obligation to notify to the Medical Officer of Health the birth of a child within 36 hours is definitely laid in tho first place upon the father, under penalty of That is clear. But obviously this mere notification is of no practical uso unless something follows —some form of help and advice to tho parents, some form of safeguard for the infant. If nothing follows, the Act becomes inoperative, and there is nothing in the Act to compel further steps to be taken. _ To the present writer it appears to give sufficient powers to enable the local authority to set about tho task of reaching the ideal that lies before each worker for the welfare of infancy and motherhood, that ideal boing simply a zero infantile mortality rate. THE IDEAL. Tho mention of such an ideal will perhaps raise a smilo of incredulity. But that ideal has already been reach-, ed. There is the examplo of the small French Commune of Villiers le _ Duo, where for 10 years together the infantile mortality rate was zero. Not one baby died for 10 years, not ono child died; every child born in that commune was at tho end of those 10 years vivant ) et vigorous. There had been no miscarriage, there had been no .death of a mother in childbirth. The niumbera are small, but tho period is long! So that a zero infantile mortality rate is not impossible. Within our own experience I have knowledge of an industrial town of ovor 100,000 inhabitants, where the average of the deaths of babies is five per week; several times for more than one period of a week for one period of 10 days together—the infant mortality rate of that town was zero. The numbers in this case were large, but the period of time was, alas 1 very short. Also withiii my erparience, out of' over 100 babies bom within a specified ■ time, amongst these hundred babies under a year old, during a con-, tinuous period of 12' months, not one of the hundred died; amongst these'loo babies for 12 consecutive .months ' the mortality rate was zero.: The means by which the zero infant ■ mortality rate was secured in the Commune of Villiers le-Duc are set forth iu a report of the French Academy of Medicine, and they are perfectly simple, and, .under tho new Notification aro perfectly practicable. (To ba concluded next week.)