Our Babies

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 31 August 1917, Page 4

Our Babies

(By Hygeia). Published under the auspices of tue Society for the Health of Women and Children. "It is wiser to put up a fence at tie top of a precipice than to maintain# n ambulance at the bottom." New Government Book for Mothers. "The Expectant Mother and Baby's First Month," prepared by the Society and issued by the Public Health Department fiee of charge, can be obtained on application (including IJd for postage) from the Matron, Kari-tane-Harris Hospital, the Plunket JSurses, the Honorary Secretaries of the Branches, and the Registrars in the principal towns. The Society ia specially anxious that every prospective mother should receive a copy of this little book long before Che birtb of her baby, and we feel sure that if this is done very great benefit wi 1 accrue to mother and child and much trouble and sickness will be prevented. Our readers will do a good service if they draw ihe attention of any of their friends, who would be benefited by the book, to the fact that it may be bad on application. 1 Welfare of Mother and Child. (Extracts From Paper by the Right Hon. A. H. D. Aclana, formerly Minister of Education in England, read at the Child Welfare Congress, Capetown).

"We are gradually waking up in England to the fact that an appalling and most unnecessary loss of life is going on in our mtdst, much of which can be prevented, and which it is the bounden duty of the Nation to prevent. "We are draining the Nation of its best lives in our fight for National honour; we have endured losses in War U.finiuly greater than ever before it. our u.atuiy ;u m*o killed i»nd permanently crippled in the cause of justice atid lioer.y. And jet at the same time we are allowing at home a sacrifice of lives—youne lives,— the men and women of the future, upon whom the Nation will depend later on lives many of which we could saverComparison of Infantile Death Kates.

"The infant death-rate —that is, tha number of babies that die under 12 months out of every thousand that are born—in 1915 was about 110. This is an improvement on the figures of last century; but it i 3 a disgrace to us that one-tenth of the babie3 born die before they are a year old. Ami we know that this can be attered if we alter the conditions which surroand the babies and their mothers, and if we give the mothers a chance of getting the best available kuowledge on Infant Welfare, etc. The Example of New Zealand. ' "In New Zealand the rate has been brought down to 51 per thousand, or less than half our rate in England. And in New Zealand their fine results are due not to climate, but to hard work. Lady Plunket tells us that what has been done there is recognised as one of the greatest patriotic works of the day. But the workers there have had to fight, she says, 'the same apathetic public, the same contradictory teaching, the same dirty milk supply, the same human natures, the same medical and lay prejudices, the ■aroe lack of funds' as we have to grapple with in many parts of England." Ignorance Among Mothers fcf all Classes, !

"When we apeak of ignorance of mothers we moat remember that this ignorance is not that of working mothers alone. Moat yonng mothers in every class are ignorant on this subject until tt.ey have been taught. It cannot be expected that mothers can knew all the most recent knowledge about how to deal with an ailing baby, or how to avert disease. They natarall J think that they know best, or trust to the advice of their mothers or relatives or friends who have tronght up children. The task of overcoming thoir ignorance and thdr distrust of improved methods is a task which requires an infinite amount of patience and tact. Bot this patience and this tact are essential parts of this task of Life-saving which is of such i.-.finite National importance at the present time." Remedies. "What, then, are the most available remedies for the disastrous loss and injury to National Health of which I have spoken? We cannot hope in war

time to sweep away more slums and rapidly remedy the bad sanitary surroundings of many of our mothers. We must wait for some of these reforms, and must hope that the National conscience will soon be more alive to tbese great evils where they eaist. "But we can concentrate "on two principal duties which we ought to carry out at once. And our National propaganda work in our campaign of Life-saving is principally aimed at these two objects. And in these two tasks the principal workers will be WOMEN. First, we must have an adequate supply of Health Visitor^—women who have been trained to understand the Eubjects with which they have to deal, who will visit the home of every moth- i er and expectant mother who is willing to raceiva them. There will be prejudice at first against receiving visits or receiving advice. But when it is found that a neighbour's baby is really the better for an improved method of feeding or treatment —when it i/seen that an expectant mother has been spared needless suffering by timely advice. . . progress begins to be made. "Secondly, we must have an Infant and Mother Welfare Centre in all our town districts within easy reach of all mothers, to whom such Centres will be i f service. Such, for example, is the School for Mothers at St. Pancras, \ a . Pioneer Welfare Centre, which waa founded originally with the object of i educating mothers in the feeding and care of infants under 12 months old and it has now a fairly full org°nisation directed to that end. Women ex- j pecting to become mothers are sought • out and visited and are often per- , suaded to come to the school before' the birth of the baby. There they are taught how to prepare proper clothes and the cradle for the little one; they are also given very simple instruction in the care of their own health and that of the child when it shall be born, and the great importance of breastfeeding i» insisted upon. j "We are full of hope that the coun- ! try is at last beginning to realise what ' h?iß to be done. But there is much > lethargy and prejudice yet to ba over- j come in many quarters, and only a j small proportion of the task before .us - has been carried out." i