OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3197, 22 September 1917, Page 3

OUR BABIES

fBY HYGEU.I Published under the ausnfees of the Society lor the Health of Women aud Children. "it is wiser (o put uu a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." HAVING Tlll-i BABII-IS. Some letters from "St Helen's 'i'lainees." with reference to the recent deputation from the Central Council oi the I'lunkct Society to tho Minister of Public Jltulth, huvo appeared in ono oi ihe southern newspapers. Wβ thiuk our readers will uu interested in the following letter from tho Central Council which, while relcrrWß to the newspaper correspondence, oralobroadly with the whole yuestion. LETTER I'HOM CENTRAL COUNCIL. iTo tho Editor.) Sir.-'l'he Central Council oi the llunket Society has decided, in view of the correspondence which has tiikeu place under the above head, to ask you to nublish the lollo\vin°" — . , The main facts hearing on the society s recent deputation to the Minister o£ Public Health, at which Mrs. Truby King and Jirs. Theomin acted as representatneb of the Central Council, were as tollow:- . (1) Nearly 3U.0U0 babies are bom every year iu New Zealand-or say a prospective 300,000 child-immigrants to arrive in tne • course of the next 10 years. I (2) The build, health, auU fitness of these children will depend mainly on the correctness of the mother's knowledge autt habits on her health during pregnancy, and on the way in which the infanta are reared throughout the first two years 01 life. (3) The monthly nurse is, to a very great extent the arbiter of the fate of both mother and child; tho destiny of the race is iu the hands of the parents and nurses. Therefore, the I'lunkct Society is bound to leave no stone unturned to ensure the soundest and most reliable advice and teaching possible. . In New Zealand tho women authorised by the Government to practise as monthly nurses include, besides the St. Jielen nurses :— (a) Nurses trained at other State maternity hospitals in the Dominion; (b) certificates from training institutions in other countries; (c) women who were practising as midwives before Ihe passing of tho Midwives Act, 1904, and who becamo registered on the ground of previous practical exuerienco. (4) The monthly nurses, drawn in this way from various sources, naturally represent very diverse views and methous. This diversity is specially marked as regards the essentials of pre-natal care, the establishment and maintenance of breastfeeding, and the best means of aruuciaL feeuiur-aU o£ which tranaoendently important matters have been the subject of profound investigation and radical changes and reforms iu the course ot recent years. Instead of confusion, we now have available simple, dear, definite knowledge. Leading authorities have arrived at consistent conclusions as to what aro the most fundamental requirements for the welfare of mother and child—and incidentally, of course, what must be the groundwork of national health and emciency iu this direction. (5) To give practical effect to this accumulating knowledge regarding mothercraft, and not to leave it confined between Vhe covers of books and periodicals on the shelves of medical specialists, simple, precise tables and figures showing normal average requirements have been drawn up and issued by the Plunket Society. These havo been adopted, published, and sent out by the Government for tho guidance of mother and nurso throughout the Dominion, instead cf leaving them dependent on mere slipshfid guess work, or giving them recipes and ligurcs more misleading than guesswork. 'While, however, the Plunket Society has been fighting year after year for unity and consistency of teaching on the liuca of what patient research and investigation have shown that Nature allows the baby in the form of its mother's milk, when both are doing well other apparently authoritative but utterly inconsistent printed instructions have been disseminated throughout the couiitry, both from inside- and outside sources—instructions which, if carried out, would hopelessly starve the baby on the cne hand, or ruin its digestion on the other. We may give a single illustration. Mothers and nurses in the Dominion have actually had to iliooeo between ac'vice recommending for a child of one month of age an allowance of a milk mixturo having the value of 7Joz, of Mother's milk, and on the other hand advice 'apparently equally authoritative) showing the average baby at, a month old as needing a mixture of which the food equivalent would be no less than 350?.. of mother's milk! Inconsistent food allowance for babies at ono month and two- months—taking mother's milk as tho standard. One Two month. months. Authority A 7£oz. lloz. Authority B 35 oz. 360/,. Nature &3 or,. 270z. T v -o qualitative inconsistencies have teen just as absurd, damaging, - and indensible. TlHi3 the ])ercentiij,o of fat fur a l-uuy during the ilrst week of life was set down as 1 per cent, by uutacrity A and as 3 per cent, by authority B—the latter being actually crude butter-fat, of which the average baby cannot cope with more than 2 per eeut. during the first weeks. Iu mother' 6 milk tho fat is a delicate, oasilyabsorbed, almost oily substanco; yot Nature's average allowance throughout the nine months' nursing period is only 4 per cent. Professor von I'irqnet, of Vienna, the leading authority in the world on "Overfeeding Babies," has shown that this is one of the gravest, causes o£ death, disease, and debility in early infancy. Further, of all ithe olemouts iu the food of bottle-fed babies, the fat of cow's milk is the constituent most liuble to disagree. The experience, of the Plunket curses shows that a large proportion of the ailing babies brought to tdem are suffering from malnutrition or indigestion induced ny overfeeding in the first few weeks of life. (6) The Central Council sent Jtrs. Truby King- and Mxs/Thooniiii to 'Wellington with clear instructions to. see wiietliiu- s&uio means could bo devised to,lring wbout the consistency of teaching and advice necessary in tne be.3t interests of niothrx and child—consistency, that is to say, with Nature and the ascertained requirements of infancy, as explained, in a simple, practical yvay in the Health. Department's pamphlet prepared ))y the society. It was hoped that the uecesgary reform would be arrived at by merely bringing the matter before the Minister and the Chief Health Officer without publicity. Not- achieving what was needed in this way (as regards bringing the teaching of midwives up to date aud making it consistent and harmonious in the directions indicated), ,tho matter became the subject of a. Parliamentary deputation, which led to the reports which have appeared in tho newspapers. No attack wai) made or intended on the St. Helens Hospital. In asking tho Goverament for thfc privilege of Dr. King's services for all the midwivos throughout the Dominion, we considered we were asking for something which ought to be as much appreciated by the maternity hospitals (State and private) as by the mines themselves; and it is disappointing that some of those connected with the local St. Helens instiiu; tion should have proved thomselvee so sadly narrow, self-sufficient, -uni-ccepttye, and utterly incapable of seeing beyond themselves in a matter' in which the society's solo desire is to bring about tho further saving of some hundreds of Jives a year, and the general safeguarding and well-being of all infants throughout the Dominion. 7. As every Plunket nurse must be in the first instance either-U) A registered general hospital and maternity hospital nurse, or (2) a registered general hospital nurse, or (3) a registered maternity ninse; she must have had general hospital training or maternity hospital training before she took the additional three or six mouths' special conr-ao at tho Karjtam!Harris Hospital. Therefore it is utterly absurd to say that any P'unket nurse has a narrower training and outlook than a midwife. \ (8) Dr. Siedebers: and other correspondents. "The St. Helens Trainees," not-hav-ing had the Plunket training, are not in a position to estimato its scope, value. ,Pr influence. For the most part the Karitane Hospital has been in charge of matrons with the double qualification of a general hospital and a maternity hospital, and after further qualifying ae Plunket nurses they have entered on their teaching functions at the baby hospital. The statements of these nurses, selected in the first instance as exceptionally qualified and specially adapted for their work, have been singularly uniform, and their statements accord with the testimony of tho St. Helens nurses who have qualified under them at Karitano. It will suffice to ciuote the following remarks made last week before the Minister of Public Health by one of the ablest of our recent matrons—a nurse who, before going in for the Plunket training, had snecial charge for eight months of an nverane of a dozen babies under 12 months of age in the children's ward at one of the best general hospitals in the Dominion. Asked as to the knowledge of the requirements of. infancy displayed by nurses who came for training to the KaritaneIlurris Hospital, the reply was:—, No nurse had any practical worting knowledge of the simple principles or practices inculcated by the society. They had no acquaintance with tho contents of the Government pamphlet or tho society's hook, or the preparation of food on the formulae recommended. But, lookincr back, 1 was equally ignorant myself when I oame to Karitane. and I can only say that, what I acquired in my three months' training there and Binoo hae been an I

amazing revolution to me of my lack of qualifications for advising and heli>iiiE mothim at the timu iv'ueii i starti.'d Willi the society. Asked the further oucstlou: "Have you nil" tcojing that the Knutauo trainine has narrowed or contincil the outlook—as specialising may do-to one system to the exclusion of others?" th« reply, was as follows:— No, absolutely tins reverse. Kothiue has inoro broadened my mind or outlook. I have never been associated with anything in which so much liberality of thinking and acquiring knowledge from every source, and udoDtini: it on rational lines, was no much encouraged, as iu connection with the society. As sufficient comment on the reflection made by the corresnomlent as to the society's work and Dr. Truby King, we niav sav that he has just received a eilble-Ki-ain from Koine. askiiiß him to ko to London, placinc the Mnrlbormiph bclipol of Mothercraft at liis disposal, tclliiie him to name a salary, and hrius "■ nurse from New Zealand.—l am. etc., AIIV CAKE. President, Council Itoyal N.Z. Society for the Health of Women and Children.