For Perfect Motherhood

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 552, 3 January 1929, Page 8

For Perfect Motherhood

Plunket Society Has Busy Year

THE insistent call of humanity for the care and preservation of all the country’s babies has been answered effectively by the Plunket Society throughout Xew Zealand, and The old year has closed upon a period of singular achievement toward the attainment of the society's objective—perfect motherhood. The widespread benefits of the free advice and attention given under Plunket supervision are reflected among Auckland's healthy infants.

New Zealand lias commanded the admiration of the world over the past 20 years tor the magnificent results which attended the work of the Plunket Society in checking unnecessary loss of infant life. A long struggle against convention and prejudice was pursued with indomitable tenacity by Dr. Sir Truby King in 1907, when he sought to * apply Nature’s laws in the most favourable circumstances to the human race. Today Sir Truby King is universally admired and respected for the distinctive success of his practical but simple project. Many of Auckland’s 3,000 babies of 192 S owe their existence to the care of

the Plunket nurses, and many of Auckland’s young mothers are still living only because of the skilled attention and advice they have received free of charge from these capable officers. Many of Auckland’s young fathers, too, have a grateful corner in their hearts for the society which has helped to save the lives of their wives and children.

Not onjy in the Karitane Home is the Plunket Society operating for the welfare of mother and child, hut throughout the whole district its nurses are consulting young mothers about the cave of their health, and cooperating with the doctors in removing as many difficulties as possible from the lot of the woman when she becomes a patient. Primarily the young woman who consults the district nurse does not concern herself with the mechanism which enables her to receive free advice and assistance about the correct treatment of her child, hut after she has passed through the ordeal of motherhood and realises the magnitude of the society’s help, she wonders

why a fee is not charged for the attention given. The explanation of this is that the society’s work is a form of adult education, and as such should be free and easy of access to all those seeking it. It is not charity, but free education, given in the best interests of the community. Moreover the main functions of the organisation are not to heal sick babies, but to prevent sickness, and, by education in mothercraft, to bulid up better citizens physically. YOUNG FATHERS’ GRATITUDE Not that the society is flush with funds. On the contrary, it is reported by the president in Auckland, Mrs. Parkes, that never was there such financial stringency. The call upon the services of the nurses at headquarters is increasing rapidly, and the attendances have increased from two half-days in the week to every day. More nurses are required, and frequent requests are being made for the establishment of new centres. Expansion is difficult, however, because of the part which money must play in developing the society’s scope It is sometimes asked whether the general public is doing its share toward the support of this national work, as a large proportion of the donations in the annual ‘‘Help the Babies” appeal is contributed by young fathers, whose appreciation is expressed in a tangible manner once the efficacy of the organisation has been made known to them. As a solution of the financial problem, the establishment of an endowment fund has been suggested, and Mrs. Parkes is anxious to see the excellent example set by the trustees of the Hunter Shaw Estate in giving *£3oo emulated by other benefactors, so that an interest-bearing investment can be made. NATIONAL BENEFIT

The chief work of the Plunket nurses when they first attend to their patients is to advise them how to care for themselves, and to see that they are properly trained to undertake their highest calling in life. In the words of Mrs. Parkes, the solution of the general problem lies in one direction only. “The only practical solution,” she says, “is by educating and training the whole adolescent girlhood and womanhood of the Dominion in the essentials for establishing and maintaining their own health, so that they may bear and rear strong healthy children—the finest asset any country can possess. Indeed, the whole population should be brought to realise that from the beginning to the end of life, proper nutrition of the body is the foundation of all forms of fitness and capability—physical, mental and moral.”

This the Plunket Society is endeavouring to do, and in the execution of its ideals it has the assistance of efficient and well-trained nurses, as well as capable and painstaking officials and medical men. In this way it is aimed to raise the status of motherhood to a higher plane and impress upon the world the truth of the assertion that perfect motherhood is perfect patriotism.