MATERNAL WELFARE

Hokitika Guardian, 24 January 1931, Page 3

MATERNAL WELFARE

OBSTETRICAL ADVANCE

VISIT OF DIG M. ALLAN

WELLINGTON, Jan. 21

Dr. Marshall Allan, Professor of Obstetrics, University ot Melbourne, was a passenger by the Ulinuuoa, which arrived at Wellington from Sydney today. He is visiting the Dominion on the invitation of the New Zealand Obstetrical Society, and in the course of his tour will meet members of the profession, especially those particularly interested in obstetrics. Dr Marshall Allan will deliver public addresses at a number of the chief centres, and will read several papers on obstetrics at the annual meeting of the British Medical Association at Gisborne next month. He leaves for Nelson to-night, and after visiting Christchurch, Dune, din, Invercargill, and other centres will return to Wellington in about three weeks, and will deliver an address here about the 10th of February. Dr Allan to-da.v paid a tribute to the women of New Zooland for the splendid response which they made last .vear to the appeal made by Dr Doris Gordon for funds to establish a chair ot, obstetrics at the Dunedin Medical School. The raising of £31,000 for the purpose mentioned was quite a noteworthy achievement, for in addition to endowing the chair it would enable the Medical School to grant two travelling (scholarship each year of £l5O. Thus students would have the benefit of study at other centres. New Zealand had already done excel. 1 “nt work on the care of the child, said Dr Allan, and might he said to lead the world in this respect. The publicspirited response to the appeal last year should do much towards ensuring a better outlook for the expectant mother. He was pleased to notice that the statistics in regard to maternal mortality in New Zealand were slowly but .surely improving, and were lower than the Australian and English rates.

A visit was recently made by Dr Allan, to Sweden, Denmark, and Holland'in order, if possible, to ascertain wily those countries have an apparent lower maternal mortality and niodbidityr rate compared with other countries. He noticed the general healthiness of the people, and formed the opinion Dial- many of the causes of loss of maternal life, particularly arising from eclampsia, do not exist to the same extent in those countries as exist in Australia and New Zealand. He was struck, 'too, with the low incidence id sepsis. As had been pointed out by various' authorities, however, international comparisons of maternal mortality rates were misleading to a certain extent. The reason wa,s the want of a common basis of classification. Owing to a common basis of classification in Australian and New Zealand, tlie maternal mortality rates of these two countries were comparable.