OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 27, 26 October 1918, Page 5

OUR BABIES

i'BT HTCnA.I . Published under the auspices of the , Royai rfew Zealand Society for the Health 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 BABY'S FATHF.It. DR.' HELEN MACMVjIICIIY'S'ABTICLK (Concluded.) Of al! the horrors of peace the worst is lMant mortality. Why .is it? Because of our' ignorance, inefficiency, and lack of national imagination. U'he average citizen is not, seized of the importance of this question at all., lie has not had it'put before mm, yet it, in a great national question, and one that the average citizen will-have to give his attention" 10. In other words, we must, as has bvn already said, state pur cane to the 3.aby'a Father and secure ■lis leadership, help, and co-operation in this crusade, and we shall do it, now with increased force, because of the unanswerable arguments that we can now use. Thf appalling national loss which is the price we are. freely paying for- the freedom, tho Jr-siice, .and the pence of the world can omy 1m made up,in one'way. Infant niorKtlUy is the only other loss of citizens that compares with our losses in the war. The only place where wo can adequately economise in our peace-time waste of manpower and wojnan-power is here in our imant mortality loss. If any argument i 3 needed to show that the Baby's Father is'the one that can nelp.us we might refer to the,statistics of .ho licsistrar-Genei'al of Knglaud and Wales in regard to tho denth-rate under one month. It should first be mentioned that; formerly tho opinion was hold' that deaths under one month were 75 her cent rreduciblo-that is, it used to be thought that the*; deaths could not be helped, tn.it lino causes were beyond our control. Now wo know better. We do not believe a word of the irreducible jjjeory. The deathrate undor one month where the Baby's t nther is a doctor, a merchant, or an ur,ißi is beow 25 per IMO births, and,where •tne naby s father is a minor, a navvy, or a scavenger the death-rate undor ' 'one month is 45 per 1000 births. Asain, the death-rate under one month in" a »laco [Called Watford, England, is 19 per" 1000 births, but in a place cntlcd Yvorkinston it 13 15 per' 1000 births. So what- we need to do 13 to study the problem before us so as to understand it and do "something to aet. matters right.' ... Consider this. The general infant mortality rate is 100 per 1000 births. But the nni CS iiS la i?« il,tiU i'i. mol ' talit y ratc is MO' when the Baby's Father never reports for | duty at all.

What, then shall we do? Two thiritrs «e obvious. First lot us take the Dab"'3 father into our confidence. Tel'.him.thai there ib a war on and set him to enlist ?Saw rß l'? r ' f or duty. We •have never told him yot that child welfare depends on him, and how should we expect him to Know hw duty if no one explains it to mm, How do wo learn our duties as physicians? Our professors, instructor:!, and clinicians drive them into our hearts and minds Readily for live years. Anything that, lllby fprget (which is not much) is driven- into us by the general public and our patients. They soon let us know what 19 expected of us. As Kipling said, "It is squired of you , n all time of famine, plague, pestilence, battle, murder, and sudden.death that you report for duty at' once, that you go on duty p.t once, and that you stay on duty until your conscience absolves you or your strength fails you—whichever happens flrst." • " But did we ever tell the Bnby's Father what was required of diini? Did we ever say that tins was national service? Do we ever treat tho man who has made a ha™ 0 t? any tha " the raa " * ho

thJIT M u"? more . b) 't of advico in these days which we might give to young men. The war seems to make it somehow wrong that a young man of decent character, in good health and steady work, should remain unmarried." What wo,seem to need is a- change in public opinion. We cannot interfere with people s private affairs you sayi ' No I know that. But wo could show that 'we Kayo a higher opinion of those v;ho make ?L -° m u. "v Vo . c - ould ÜBO our influence in tho right direction. Probably those with whom vro have influence would be profoundly impressed by anything we might say to them. How do they know we care anything at all about it? We could show them that wo cared.

Our second very obvious duty i a to treat tho averago citizen as tho Baby's Father ought to be treated. When the census man says, Tliib man is a scavenger," the Country says, "Oh, no, W o have changed nil **"& ?° , 18 the Bal W' s Father." When the school Bays, "This is a boy of 14 just loaving school," wo nays, ".Not a ?m of lt > ; hc IB , to be lll ° Baby'B Father." When the employer says, "You cannot give every man a minimum wage"; wo say, "The Baby's Father must have a living- wage at lenst, and a good one but., of course, ho must work for it." In other words, a man must' hovo the wages tho Jiotißing, and tho education that the Baby's Father needs.

Daddy wrote a letter. It was from Paris, where apparently ho had been sent by .the United .States on a diplomatic mission. After telling something of what is going on, the letter mentions that on the writer's desk', is a photograph of the boy to whom the letter is addressed-his first picture in khaki. This is tho last paragraph of tho letter: "Let mo whisper a secret. While it has tickled my vanity to know how proud you are of the old man's little successes, and it has been a real spur to me, yet all the while I know, and bo should you. thnt you arc my real success. All that I ever dreamed of doing or boing I know you will accomplish if you come through this war alive—Daddy." The Baby is the Real Success.