Our Babies

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 15 June 1917, Page 4

Our Babies

(By Hygeia). - Published under the auspices of i r S cietv for the Health of Women .i, C itttren. ( b "It is wiser to put up a fence at ' ji i„J tup of a precipice that to maintain . E an ambulance at the bottom." I r "Institutional" and the Baby. j v Aleut the middle of April, 1914 j (three months before the War), just ; t ■*"ter their return from Europe, Dr ' j a Mrs Truby King wrote as follows t his column regarding their recent I experiences and impressions:— j _ ** Hospitalism" or"lr>stitutionalism" ; c i* the term applied to the tendency of j r ba: ies to become weak and debilitated, v end to contract various diseases if I c kept in "Institutions" instead of j j being looked otter in private houses, t "Hospitalism" is the curse of Euro- - pean Baby Hospitals, and accounts for i ( «;eir high death rate. Ttre reason ! j *«hv we have no Hospitalism at the | j Karitane Hospital is the fact that we ( are not afraid of pure cold air, but. dread warm, muggy air. Of course, j the worst of at! things is careless j chang* from warm, stuffy rooms to j cold air and draughts, especially if , there is also carelessness as to cloth- , >ng. , Statistics. ( "In a German book published in , 1513 fay Dr Ludwig Meyer, of Berlin, , it is shown that in the early part of last century the infantile death rate in . t dling Hospitals was often 50 per , c*nt.. and som •times almost every l ! b by died in spite of there being a\ ■ real dtsire to keep them alive. I' ** Until quite recently things were i n«t much better, even in the costly! and extravagant baby wards and baby f hospitals established in the gr<at cities of Germany and Austria. The high death rate in these institutions, > and the slow progress and feeble vi- ; tality of the inmates, still strike with astonishment anyone who baa sem what can be brought abont by simple, ; t nonal care and h gene. T:\ei thoriti a of European baby hoppials ..; :i ■-■ -: pa"a r .ively even nm*, ";'•■: . ui.cil .!r«tU-. rate of 20 or 30 : «•■ •., sot-■■••use sue.' figures £.re so . :;• ,-i.h .u~ r than th°y had grown ac- 1 • usi»m-d to us inevitable. • Striking Contrast In N*w Zealand. | "Ir* th<s Ka itane Baby Hospital thet ■C ar.h rat- tins averaged only 10 per I Cjt t for the last three iSU). and rtTwoult certainly be less ..fasn 5 per cent t>ut for the fact that «;ch a large proportion of practically CK-p-j ; ess premature babies and otners - • sent in a moribund c»nnition, and c • -V-i ady or two »f afsmi='3N:>r>. -:!.■■' , b» i- cap«r»fe of surviving a i-rj'. t o;mi g unJer < ur ere. *e ..'.- t a rare event. (M«-n. .by "".. -" :—Tti s ye-.r's arnuat reporx of - . v.. v Huspitwl ?to«s a death .-'■£ <;.• 4 p J Ce t). ' J .-v' :■•'. ..- the fate of th- c'~ildra?i r- -t , it :s inraporstb!- t« draw r a -fast - isf between na i-tn and H.-pitalism: but cc t at in,founu!ing home? most of • r _i.bitii may be received in go~d ..... >'<<:rtcutions even nice inexcusi than a liigh it-iatitile mortality 'n ri spitals. " 'at is a Reasonable Drath Rate for Babies in Institutions.

"One can say with entire confidence :r at rte infantile mortality ought not i-. «-xcesd 5 to 10 per cent in any orutnary institution for the care of bnoies, where, say, three-fourths are Mniiited healthy, and only one-fourth suffering from malnutrition or actual sickness. How, then, can the civilised world justify itself in regard to the callous indifference which bas obt ined, and still obtains, almost everywhere as to the fate of babies entrusted to the guardianship of institutions? "In our own time no country in the world —not even Australasia—has been F'xempt from institutions where the baby death rate has averaged from 30 to 40 per cent of those admitted, and there have been plenty of instances in the world in which the death rate bas nsen to double these figures—only a fifth to a sixth of the inmatea-sur-viving. American Figures. "In the Transactions of the 'American Association for the Studv and

;ve>i.n of Infantile Mortality/ *«r 1910, there is published, a prelimin-

ary account of the investigations of a Committee set op to inquire into the i 'Mortality in Institutions for Infants.' J A large endowment for this purpose | } was left by a wealthy American named i J | Russell Sage, and the findings of the j | I Committee not only produced a pro- j ! found impression, but led to revolu- \ tionary changes in the care of children j who could not be reared by their I mothers. The reports were drawn up j less than five years ago, and were based on published statistics and inj formation received directly from 22 l institutions most of them covering a i series of years. "Seeing that the figures were supplied by the institutions themselves, it will readily be inferred that in no case would they be more unfavourable than the actdal facts warranted. On the other hand, it is* noted that some of the institutions tended to show less than their normal death rates, owing to the practice of boarding-out delicate j children in private families, while in other cases it* was found that moribund infants were returned to their mothers, and in such case 9 they appear as "returned to mother," and :he;r j deaths are not reported.' j "The following is a broad summary 1 of the statistics far the 22 institutions I reported on:— Total number of infants under ' two years received in the 22 institutions * v 56,451 Number of deaths reported 22,743 Ratio of deaths per cent. 40.3 Analysis of Death Rates. \ Death Rate on Admission. Number of Institutions. Per cent. j Average for the six best i institutions Under 30 ■ Average for »ix institutions Between 30 and 40 Average for three institutions Between 40 and 50 Average -for three institutions Between 50 and 60 Average for two institutions Between 60 and 70

"Commenting on these figures, the report said that though it is a common impression that the desth rates in in* Btitutions bad been greatly diminished in recent jears, the actual statistics made it apparent that the latest death rates were only 4 per cent. lo*wer than the average for the series of preceding year?. (

"The point of view of some of those wbo ace in charge of these American Baby Institu ions is illustrated by the following facts: (I) In the printed. report of a prominent borne for the care of infants' occurs the following statement. After referring to a change of practice, whereby nursing infants were boarded out in private families instead of being kept together in the institutions, the report says: "The mortality has been reduced from about 100 j>t cent, to about 34 per cent. A later report of the same institution shows a fur her reduction to less than 20 per cent."

(2) The physician in charge of an institution where the practice of boarding out children in family homes has prevailed during recent years says: "During my period of observation, covering more than a year, every motherless infant under the age of one year admitted to the institution died before reaching the age of two years." (3) TLe superintendent of an asylum for infants sent the following report: "I send you the infant statistics -required. During the past 20 years the death rate among the children two years and under was 75 per cent." x