INFANTILE MORTALITY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 512, 15 November 1928, Page 16

INFANTILE MORTALITY

OBSTETRIC REFORM OVERTURES. IN AUSTRALIA The organisation working for the reduction of maternal and infantile mortality in Australia has submitted to the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Stanley Bruce, a big scheme of reform drawn up by Dr. A. Watson Munro. The Commonwealth Government is urged to standardise and federalise the whole scheme of obstetric education of medical undergraduates, and to extend the present practical training of rhe ordinary undergraduate. The clinical course, it is urged, should be extended to a minimum of three months’ residence in a maternity hospital. Generous endowment of the obstetric departments of the medical schools is also advocated, with salaries sufficient to secure the best teaching talent and also to render a career in obstetrics attractive to graduates. Endow Research Post-graduate courses, it is urged, should be extended. The Government is also asked to endow research into the numerous unknown causes of maternal and infantile death and disease. and to vote £500,000 forthwith, the income to be devoted to continuous investigation into causes of disease, their prevention, and their treatment. The authorities are also urged to lengthen the course of maternity nurses’ training, to abolish fees now paid by trainees in some of the States, and pay them a salary, as with other classes of nurse. A first-class modern maternity home at Canberra, to serve the needs of the Federal territory and neighbourhood, and to he a model for the rest of Australia, is suggested.