Our Babies

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 2 November 1917, Page 4

Our Babies

(By Hygeia)

Published under the auspices of ti*e ■•ciety for the Health of Women and Children.

"It i« wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at.the bottom."

"Save The Babies" Week.

The following article is taken from the Pall Mall Gazette of June 29, 1917.

Mrs H. B. Irving toured New Zealand with her husband some years ago, and when in Dunedin she visitei tbe Karitane Harris Hospital and the two Plunket offices located at that time in tbe Poat Office Buildings, Liverpool street, and in Cargill road, South Dunedin.

Mrs Irving was greatly, interested in all the tietails of the Plunket Society's work, becauae of her intimate connection with the St. Pancras School for Mothers, the first clinic of its kind established in London. She tuld us then she had a chicken farm in tbe country, in which she was very much wrapped up. This is a matter of some interest in view of her references to the care of chickens. TDe eaitor of the Pall Mall Gazette introduces Mrs Irving's article in the following woras:— It is a pleasure to give this column today to the National Baby Week. Mrs Irving's words are well worth reading.

Th« Message of National Baby Week. By Mra H. B. Irving. If anyone wanted to run a profitable chicken farm be would see that the chickens had plenty of space to run about id, a good water supply, airy houses limewashed and cleaned out daily, and suitable food; otherwise the chickens would die. If a poultry farm farmer lost one chicken in every five, and two-fifths of his entire stock were poor specimens, be would give up his business as a bud job; but be is not so ■tupid. He takes reasonable precautions to ensure a supply of fine chickens. Now, I want you for a moment to imagine tbe nation as the owner of a baby farm. It wants all its babies, and they are its assets, but it isn't a clever manager—it loses too many from preventable causes. Most Babies Born Healthy. Ninety per cent, of all babies are born healthy. If we took mora care for the young mothers and taught tbe laws of physical health to young people we should have an even higher percentage of living healthy births. Anyhow, imagine these 90 perfectly i sound babies. If they lived in good surroundings with fresh air, and bad J fathers who were comfortably off, only four of them would die. If they were the children of parents earning 25a to £2 10s a week, living in places v like Snoreditch and Poplar, 18 woul" die before the year was out, and of the 72 who|remained quite 40 would be suffering from some physical defector delicacy which would help to make life harder for them- in the future. Ihe mother is surely the person most responsible. Very well, then. Enlighten the mother, and the aesired result will be achieved. Needed, A School for Slam PropertyOwners. But teaching tbe mothers did not improve bousing conditions, and nobody had thought of starting a school for alum property-owners. There is nothing easier than lecturing mothers on their duties. Tbf»te i 3 nothing harder than effecting improvement in tbe environment, food, and treatment of the mothers and children themselves.

Bsbies a National Asset. . Infant welfare work cannot any longer be the monopoly of a few enthusiastic people. Babies are a

national asset, and they onght tj be & national responsibility. If we cared enough we could save 50,000 babies every year. It is not the fault of the State nor the fault of the municipality, because citizens are the only people , who in the end can say what is to be done. Their representatives are their servants, and it is up to the man in the street to say, "This is my stunt; go ahead with the baby-saving apparatus"— and he would, if he really understood the national peril, and that it is more dangerous in he : a m Ersghird tftjn a sot Jer •• '•'** U,.e »■; J« raaee.

We are glad to think that it was America who first gave us the idea of National Baby Week. Babies ara a business proposition in America, and we hope it Trill not be long before they are regarded in that light here. If we had ooly taken cara of our babies better in the past we might have had another 500,000 men ready to-day for our country's need.