Our Babies

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 9 November 1917, Page 4

Our Babies

(By Hygeia)

Published under the außpices of tt.e loeiety for the Health of Women and Children.

"It ib wiser to put up a fence at th« top of a precipice than to maintain ■K ambulance at the bottom."

"Save The Babies" Week. October 28 to November 2, 1917. •'The Race marches forward on the feet of Little Children."

Are you a patriot? Do you want your nation to survive? Are you determined that never again shall there be 50 p6r cent, of possible rejects in oar community? If so, study and ponder the following facts: — Our First Handicap.

• 'What with the unborn and the prematures, New Zealand is very greatly handicapped in the race '.or life and population. Prematurity accounts for over a third of our Infantile Mortality. Evt-n the babies born at fall term are mostly not a.- strong ao4 vigorous as they should b-?, owing to lack of open-air exercise, etc., on the part of the mothers. The mother's health is the baby's health. Ihe gravest diseases of the day are not Cancer or Consumption, but the universal decay of weak and badly-built teeth, which undermines the whole system, and predisposes to all diseases. | Our Best Immigrants. In the next 10 years nearly 300,000 (certainly over a quarter of a million) children will be born in New Zealana. Almost every new-burn babe is cap--abla of living and doing well if properly treated; but, owing to ignorance and neglect of health and proper attention, the majority of our mothers and babies are not n arly as strong and well as they should be. Many babies still suffer from easily-avoio-able diarrhoea and malnutrition, which handicaps them for the rest of lite, and some 15u0 die every year. As the New Zealand Baby Deathrate was reduced 2£ per cent, in the seven years 1907-14, ahuuld we not aim at another 2J per cent, reduction —halving the present rate—in tiie next 14 years? Why not —we cai if we will! Our Infantile Death-rate c ula be much fu»ther reduced by the proper education of school-girls in iVlof.eicraft, and by simple, practical instruction of the mutriers in their homes and elsewhere by* means of thoroughly com- ' patent and specially-trained nurses. Women ought to be taught in a simple, practical, convincing way the laws and needs of life in respect to fresh air, •uitable food, regulwr exercise, clothing, etc.

Assets v. Liabilities. % Every healthy young "aauit is worth over £3OU to tne country. Every unhealthy w&strel fci.d cependeut who has to be kept by the public is a grave liability instead of an asset. There are, for vnstanca, at the present moment EtiftUji insane persons taid ot &~ CDfurtUQutrS who hnve cost the Dominion frcm £SOO to 1 iiiOuO ea.ch jn maintenar.ee. , Hospitals (pablic and private) Will soon be ousting us directly about jE1.000,000 (a million sterling) a year, to say ne-tsung of the enormous lofci eutilted oy cftronic debituy aua th* withdrawal of nurses and invalids from spherrs ui Murk whtcn wauli!give i; return tu the country. ■ wewuntb prevfeiit >ur normal assets froiii Ci>,utinLiiiig to be converted through ignorance and ceg.eci. i.-co grave liabilities. lue skknas- ana d«b>iity ot babieb ts r.ue tu mere igcorai.ee and carelessness: rarely to intentional neglect or cruelty. 111-Health Life's Main Handicap.

The mam cause of submergence unci failure in the battle of lite is tlt-fccaltti. Our expenditure on uuspuaiaatid chari-

table aid will keep on groAiaa as locg j. as v»e contir.ue rtarirg ~nd educitlrig toe race in ignorance, a.u indeed in defiance, of the primary laws of Nature.

We must become more sensible, normal, and healthy iu our baoits; we must get back nearer to Nature; we must'avail oursalvts more and more folly of ascertained knowledge a ■ of the simpl;, beneficent, easily understandable, easily followed laws to bealtby living. - If man would but make use r-f what labßOfta t.i*i/«A.e«iiiiii» ±or

tne health of human beings, as he is making use of similar knowledge in the perfecting of plants and animate, there would be no ground for setting up further Commissions to inquire into the causes underlying the tendency to deterioration and unfitness on the part of civilised mankind-—there would be no deterioration to worry about. With all our advantages in the present day, the human race should' be going ahead, nut falling behind. The first step in the line of progress must be a general recognition of the Duty of Health and the rights of the next I generation, which we can best promote by firmly establishing the health of women and children. We Get. What We Deserve.'

Every country baß just as many Unfoitunates, Invalids, and Crimnals as it deserves, no more! 111-health means unemployableness; unemployableness means morbid thought and feeling; and morbid thought and feeling means Loafing, Vice, and Crime! We want you to assist in the movement by" attending some of the Lectures or Demonstra ions .which have been organised in your district —by hearing e "Baby Sunday" Sermon, by attending a Mothercraf c Exhibition if available, and by generally taking part in the arrangements for Baby Week.