INFANT MORTALITY

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 197, 9 May 1918, Page 8

INFANT MORTALITY

SAVING THE BABIES

A NEW SOUTH WALES SCHEME

ASTONISHING FIGURES

Mr. Seville Mayman, who is at present "• wen-Zealand on behalf of the New south Wales Government, and who has been engaged for the past eight weeks studying the methods employed in tho Dominion for (ho saving of infant life, was seen yesterday by a representative of Ins Dominion. in. JUavman stated that his visit to New Zealand was a preliminary to tho si.-rting in Ke« South Wales of a State-wide campaign for the reduction of infantile mortality. This he regarded as tho one urgent measure of reform thai cannot be allow, ed to wait. The pressing question of the day was the. saving of the multitude ol young infant lives annually lost to Australia, through deaionstrubly avoidablo causes. Always a matter of transcendent importance, lir. Mayman insists that the reduction of infant mortality is to-day one of the essential war problems. The premature deaths of thousands of young Australian children and tho ltwting <iy.bilitatiou of the many more thousands who survive the early perilous ye-.ua mean enormous waste- of produotive po.ver and iconomiu loss, apart alto gcther from the humane considerations involved. The saving and care of infants were among the most uirgent <uid sacred of all human purposes. Our national welfare, and even existence, was inseparably bound up with child preservation. New South Wales had decided that it would no longer suffer the reproach to continue that battalions of babies aro annually done to death who might easily havo been enat'ehed from the grave.

I Casualties at Home, j The world had been shocked by the heavy casualties at tho fighting front, I but many of our citizens in I ignorance of the appalling nature of oca , I casualties at home. Our homo casualties (Mr. May-nan referred to Australia) I hud been divided into two categories—tho I dead and the more or less permanently disabled or weakened. It was, perhaps, impossible to' number the infants in tlio 6econd clues, but those in the first division amount to alarming figures. For the decade eoding' 1015 New South Wales alone lost 35,000 infants who did not eurvivo the first anniversary ot thmr 'birth. I nthe whole Comomnwealth during the ton years ending 1915 upwards of 90,000 infants under one year were lost. Sir Charles Mackellar, an ominent New South Wales authority, states that in his opiubn 50,000 of theso precious lives couli and should have been oaved. This loss of valuable lives went on year iu and y«ar out. The principal causes had been emphasised by medical men over and over again—insanitation, overcrowding, dirt, bad air, incompetent midwifery, or absence of obstetric services at birth, interference with natural processes, ignorance of mothers who have never had uny specific training to fit them'for intelligent maternity, and last, , but DOf least,' insufficient nourishment with pure milk and right food. Although this waste of life was in largo part preventable, uu 'definite nation-wide effort has yet tieen made to stop it.

, Great Britain Awake, In Great Britain recently a rational campaign to save tho babies had been started. Mr. Lloyd George was the president of a most influential committee, formed to conduct this vital national work. Lord Khondda was the chairman of the executive! The importance of the matter in the United Kingdom would be clearly appreciated when it was stated that since Iho beginning of the war it was estimated that a quarter of a million dead children have ueen avoidable casualties. Statistics showed thut under tho present system it was r.ore <langerou3 to be a little baby in TlLgland than a soldier at the Wrench frent Lord Khondda declared not long ago that as a result of the campaign begun in England tbo, Home authorities hoped to save 50,000 babies a year in London alone.

I By comparison with the conditions prevailing in England, the state of ti.irgs in New South Wales was infinitely better- Still, there was a continuous heavy mortality among babies (not. ro speak of those \vho grew up weak iind defective), and much r.ould be done to diminish it. The New South Wales Governmont recognised that our sacrifices cried aloud for immediate and energetic action. It was realised that tlio time to tackle this work was not after the war, but now. The question was a fundamental one. It touched national life at its ffii-y source. After the -war there would be a tumult of problems to engage our resources. Before thiit tiine comes, Now South Wales had determined to enter upon a widespread eifort for the saving of tho army of babies tliflt now lierish avoidably every year.

Good Work in N.S.W. "On my return to Sydney,' , said Mr. Maynian, "our. campaign will.be artiated. We are going to save our babies by voluntary effort, which will he fathered, and supported by tho uovornaiaiit, and we shall establish infant welfare and maternity stations in every p&rt of the Stato where the exigency of the situation demands it. It must, of course, be understood that wo are already doing a great deal in New Kouth Wales in tho direction of saving infant life. Wo have a vast number of private organisations conducting most excellent work. Thero is, for instance, the Benevolent Society of Now South. Wales, of which I happen to bo the president. This society runs a whole series of activities in connection with tho welfare of the , mother and child, and spends between >£40,000 and J.'00,000 a year ou its various services. Tho society does a epiendid pre-natal work among expectant mothers; it has a largo maternity und gynecological hospital.; it provides a convalescent home for the after-care of maternity patients, and it conducts the first hospital exclusively devoted to infant) founded in tho Commonwealth. This infante' hospital, which only receives iiny tots up to two years, contains eighty cots, and has proved a tremendous factor in the preservation of infant l r ie. At the out-patients' department it is quite a commou experience Ui huvo "nun IMI to 200 babies a (lay brought up for treatment. Many other private iionizations exist, and all are doing valuable work. Then we have tho Government system of baby clinics. The&i clinics— about 17 in all—limb been eetaUtisurd in our congested ureas, and a bruco of nurses ie attached to cacli (lujjut, boisidt'S au uouorury physician, '..'.lie iicgistrar of Births adviirio each clinic of the births that occur in its own special district, so that the nurses may get into instant touch with the iniants. _ The tuothero are advised us to pcisoiial care and hygiene, and are taught sound principles of jnothei'ci'uit. But each activity, though doing excellent ewvice, is working as a separate ami independent unit. We want to link yiem all up diid Iring about complete co-ordination of eiVort so as to avuJil dissipation oi .'.nc-rgy and overlapping. "I came to New Zealand at t.'ie instance of the New South Wales Government to investigate your methods in relation to baby-saving, ,and i may say at once- that i am takiug home information tlhat will be of material nasistanuo. Ycur Minister of Health, tho Hon. G. W. llussell, has been most kind .aid attentive; indeed, he has gone out of Mβ way to help me. The Hon. J. h. Hi»'M>, Minister of Educution, with whom 1 have had several lutg iut<rvie\vs, las given ma in tho most friendly and intimate way tho benefit of a rip* oxporionco of the questions which fall within the province of his Department. Tho officers of the various Departments, including Dr. Valintine, Mr. Caughley, Mr. Killick, and Mr. J. Beck, Miea Maclean, and many others, have never failed in their courteous ei.deavours to promote the object of my visit. Mrs. Truby King and other ladies connected with the Plunket Society have taken a keen interest ' in our' projects for New South Wales, and I feel moro than ordinarily indebted to them for the complete information they havo imparted. In conclusion, let mo say that I have been greatly impressed with the St. Helens

Hospitals, not only as obstetric hospitals, but as moat valunblo training schools for midlives. Tim Government is to bo heartily congratulated on. its policy in establishing maternity hospitals of tihis character, which cannot fail to bfi of iminenso service in the rcdiictiou of infant mortality. 1 should like to say whole, volumes in praise of the work done under your Infant Life I'rotvetion Act, but I know thero are epuw limits when one is tliscnseiiiy u matter with ii pressman."