Our Babies

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 3 August 1917, Page 4

Our Babies

(By Hygeia). Published under the auspices of tt>« lociety for the Health of Women and Children. "It ii wiser to put up a fence at Ike top of a precipice than to maintain in ambulance at the bottom." Infant Welfare Conference in Melbourne. Last month an important Conference iras called by the Minister of Health for Victoria, and held in Melbourne rown Hall. The object of the Conference was to dis.cusa questions bearing on Motherhood, Infant Welfare, and Infant Mortality, with a special riaw to the establishment of Baby Clinics. As Others See Us. Miss Primrose, the honorary organising secretary of the Visiting Trained Nurses' Association, gave an addrass oo what is being done in New Zealand by the Plunket Society. The following is a summary of the remarks:— Remarks on the Plunket Society. I should like to say a few words about the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children. Ibis Society has inaugurated a scheme for saving infant lifa, and has carried it out so successfully during the past 10 years that New Zealand holds the record in the countries of the world for a low rate of infantile mortality. In the New Zealand scheme three great principles are recognised and acted upon: Principles. First—That a system for saving child life, to fulfil its mission adequately, must be diametrically opposed to charity in any shape- or form. Second—That education of the people on infant hygiene must be brought about by systematic teaching of al! classes. Third—That simple, reliable standards muat be drawn up and adoptee for guidance in the rearing of norma infantß. Memo, by "Hygeia."—While th< above is an excellent summary of th< Uading principles of the Society, I fee bound to mention here that the first o

all our aims and objects is to do every-11 thing in oar po:ver to promote univer- t bbl breaßt-feeding. The Society' 3 book I ■ays: , A woman's milk'is not her own It ] Is created for the baby, and the first ] duty of the mother is to ensure, by foresight, at proper supply of the only perfect food the baby's birthright. With regard to the first principle, at the Conference held at Wellington in July, 1914, it was distinctly stated, "That the Society ia engaged in a voluntary educational health mission to all classes alike, which has nothing whatever to do with the Charitable Aid Organisations of the Dominion." And in the course of an address at the Conference the General President said: We know that we get home with this health mission better by appealing in the first place to the moßt intelligent and to the most highly receptive members of the community than we should if we restricted our appeal to those of lesser intelligence. We know that members of the Society, having gained knowledge themselves, infect their neighbours and frienas directly and through tha instrumentality of the Plunket Nurses, and thus tend to leven the whole population, partly by precept and partly by example. Tee Society has established branches - throughout New Zealand. branches are presided over by lo<val executive committees, numbering from 15 to 30 members each, and embrace a very large and influential membership roll. With regard to the second principle —the Education of the Peopl .e, —certificate?. Hcspital Nurses are, specially trained for this work by a further course of from three to si/ months in the Karitane Harris Hospital a hospital devoted to babies the teaching of Mothercraft. Tfcere the nurses learn every detail of f infant hygiene and feeding, and in yve pa;rt of their conrse eutside the hospital, before they are eligible for examination as Plunket Nurses, they are taught bow to help mothers in their own bom»es. These r.urses work in harmony wftb the Heahb Officers of its many, centres and ranches.'

The Society is looked to by all classes { and by the Government itself as the recognised authority and refaree in New Zealand on the domsstic aspect : of infant welfare. Embraced in this scheme of education is the systematic teaching in schools, the periodical delivery of popular illustrated lectures by leading members of the medical i profession and the distribution of a large number of books and pamphlets. The co-operation of the press also is of inestimable value, as by this means a weekly article supplied by the Society appears in newspapers throughout the Dominion under the heading "Our Babies' Column," and some 300,000 copies are distributed. Throagh the agency of the press in this way i almost 6Tery home is reached, even taose in the remotest parts of the Dominion.

With regard to the third principle —that simple, reliable, consistent standards must be drawn up and adopted for guidance in the rearing of normal infants, —I may say that in New Zealand such a standard has been fixed, and is adhered to throughout the Dominion; but, of course, the details do not come within the scope of these remarks.

Those are the outstanding points in the scheme that obtains in New Zealand, and which, in the short space of 10 years, has so greatly reduced the infant mortality there. "Proposal to Adopt the Lines of the Plunket System." I should like to suggest, my Lord Mayor, that the representatives of different organisation- who are here, and who are so deeply interested in this vital question of saving infant life, might formulate a scheme on the same broad, comprehensive lines, so that by a united effort every baby born in the State may have the start in lift) necessary for full and perfect development.