OUR BABIES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 498, 7 September 1912, Page 3

OUR BABIES.

(By Hygeia).

Published under the auspices of the 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 BOHEMIANE AMPLE

Last week we began a short account of an enlightened scheme for the national upbringings of children and the establishment of sound body, a mind, ana personality throughout the whole community, wag practically achieved in a maritime province of Bohemia, where, to quote the words of Canon Wilson (late headmaster of Clifton College, England), "a small body of men and women of immense enthusiasm for national and idividual welfare had succeeded in firing the whole nation with their ideals —the first and fundamental object being to produce the healthiest,most intelligent and best materials for the nation that are possible." Such has been the success of these enthusiasts that, as the outcome of a visit to the province, Canon Wilson says:—"lt has become a passion with the people to rear the handsomest and most active, aptable, courteous, and good children. . . . the children and young people are, with the rarest exceptions, : as I can testify, fine wellgrown vivacious intelligent and wellbehaved. None look neglected. There is no doubt that the aim of the Board of Education has been achieved. The 'materials for the nation' are excellent. The old people all testify that the change in the children and in the whole population is very great. How has it been effected?" Ws shall now give further extracts from Canon Wilson's article. GENERAL METHODS. Perhaps I had better first describe what I saw o£ the system as it is now working; and theii go back to answer some of the questions that will occur to everyone as to how the change was effected. The Children's Bureau. The Kinder Bureau, or Local Education Authority, is worked by committees. One of these, Committee A, to „hich the country assigns decidedly the first importance, will surprise us. We should, I think, call it a "Maternity Committee." Thsy anticipated by nearly half a century the system of that remarkable French commune, Villiers-le-Duc. near Dijon, so well known in England through the work of Alderman Broadbent, of Huddersfield. The first regulation of the Tsenon Eiucation Authority may be thus translated: — Every expectant mother who from her circmstance3 cannot secure the necessary rest and food must acquaint the Medical Officer of Committee A of the Kinder Bureau two months before tb D expected birth, and must implicitly follow his instructions for the care and health of herself and the expected baby. This Education Begins Two months Before Birth! Memo. By "Hygeia." without saying that the very poor of Europe are scarcely represented in New Zealand and that therefore the precise methods most suitable in the Old World apply only to a limited extent amongst ourselves. However, the principles are the same for rich or poor, and our Society for the Health of Women and Children has fully recognised the enormous advantage that accrues to both mother and child if due care is taken to establish as perfect health as possible before the birth of the child. Indeed, the Plunket Nurses are enjoined to spare no pains in their endeavours to get women to keep themselves fit for maternity throughout, not merely to try to patch up indifferent health for the last month or so. Nothing in the work of our Society is more encouraging than the steady increase in the number of young married women or expectant mothers who seek advice from the nurses, arid the growing proportion of mothers who are nurturing their infants in the natural way and also following the simple, practical, hygienic regiment laid down by the Society in the pamhplet, "What Baby Needs." Canon Wilson continues: "The rest of the work of the Maternity Committee I must reluctantly pass over. It would greatly interest ouv Infant Health Asociations. The St. Pancras (London) system, and, as far as it goes, our Worcester (England) system appear to be modelled on that of Tsenon. One point surprised me. I inquired for the poorest and most crowded district in Tsenon, and spent a long day in visiting many families •in it with a Czech nursing sister. The rooms were small, but swuet and clean the houses high and old; and there was not much less crowding than in our deadliest Worcheter Ward, in which 192 infants out of 1000 died last year before they were 12 months old, and most of the first were permanently weakened in health. The children however, in the district of Tsenon were not unhealthy, and scarcely any had died for some years. The Sister (speaking of the world in general) assured me that it was not crowding (except were it is quite excessive, as in some of our English towns), but ill-kept streets and courts, dirt, insufficient water supply, closed windows, but above all, poverty, resulting in insufficient food and clothing fo the children, and the "ignorance of the mothers," that caused bad health. And the committee, by its nurses, with the co-operation of the parents and the whole community, saw to it that no child was short of food or clothing, and that no mother was unadvised. "Nearly every child was breastfed; and any nursing mother who applied on the ground of poverty had on, or sometimes two, meals per day given her by the Maternity Committee." Memo. By "Hygeia."—Of course,

aid is required in New Zealand is comparatively small, but the need for the practical education and training of women of all classes in the simple, practical, everyday essential for the health of mother and child, is almost as great in the Dominion as it is in any other part of the civilised world. The fundamental education of women in a!l matters most necessary for the health and fitness of the family has had little morn attention bestowed upon it, until quite recently, than was the ca&e when Herbert Spencer said, half a century ago that if any man were so rash as to venture on business or farming with as little knowledge as women enter on maternity he would be bankrupt within 12 months; or again when he says: "To hundreds of thousands of infants that are killed or grievously maimed for life add millions that are not so strong as they should be and you will gain some idea of the curse inflicted on their offspring by parents ignorant of the laws of lie." Knowledge and care are what we need for the sake of the rising generation and the race, and these things are not more needed in the case of the poor and ignorant than they are in the case of the ignorant and well-to-do.