SAFER MOTHERHOOD

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 137, 8 December 1930, Page 15

SAFER MOTHERHOOD

A NATIONAL SERVICE

(From "Tlic Post's" Representative.) . LONDON, 31st October. Nearly,. 1000 delegates representing about 300 organisations attended the ■fifth Maternal Mortality Conference, which was presided over by the Duchess of Atholl. Mr. Greenwood spoke of the need of an effective scheme on a national basis, and expressed the view that some GO per cent, of fatal cases .occurring before childbirth are proventible. The ■problem of maternity mortality, he said, remained as stubborn as ever. It uvis one of the black marks against the health services of the country. Nobody could contemplate that fact with equanimity, and no expert could convinco him that motherhood should be so dangerous a profession as it was now. Much could be done by local authorities, and he hoped that as the result of the new appeal shortly to be made every local authority would give this matter more serious ecinsideralion. Another important factor was the education of doctors and midwives. Ho hoped it would be possible in the very near future to ensure the better education of those concerned directly' in tlio maternity services. He had not a national maternity scheme cut and'dried, but he did look towards a partnership between the national insurance Bchomo and the local health authorities under a great national umbrella. He would do all he could for a national maternity scheme which would stamp out altogether the disgrace of' unnecessary maternity deaths. Viscountess Erleigh proposed a resolution, which was carried, advocating the provision of a national maternity service. Dr. Brackenbury (chairman of the council of the British Medical Association) said the resolution had the solid and emphatic support of the organised medical profession. He emphasised the need for the continuation of the education, agitation, and propaganda represented by the conference, and pointed out that any tentative measure that might be introduced must have the complete national maternity service idea in view. The conference passed unanimously a resolution urging the co-ordination of this voluntary effort with the work of public authorities "in order to enlist the widest interest and support."