SAVING MOTHERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 909, 28 February 1930, Page 14

SAVING MOTHERS

CAMPAIGN FOR CHAIR OF OBSTETRICS FUND £1,200 ALREADY SUBSCRIBED The sum of £1,200 has already been subscribed toward Auckland’s share of £7,500 of the Dominion fund to establish a Chair of Obstetrics at the Otago University, in Dunedin. This fact was revealed at a public meeting in the Town Hall concert chamber last evening, when prominent medical men, in conjunction with the New Zealand Obstetrical Society, launched the local appeal for subscriptions to the fund. The Minister of Health, the Hon. A. J. Stallworthy, who addressed the meeting, enthusiastically aligned himself with the project, A resolution approving a public appeal was carried unanimously. The following committee was appointed to conduct the appeal in conjunction with those of other centres:

The Mayoress, Mrs. A. D. Campbell, Drs. Margaret Knight, H. Northcroft, Gladys Montgomery, Buckley Turkington, Lady Robertson and Mesdames C. E. Maguire, David Nathan, Alfred Kidd, W. H. Parkes and Miss B. Carnachan. The Mayor, Mr. George Baildon, who presided, announced that the promoters aimed at raising £25,000 throughout the Dominion, which would be subsidised £1 for £1 by the Government. Auckland’s share of £7,500 was a big sum, he said, but if the appeal was properly organised it should be raised without difficulty. Already, £1,200 had been donated by the following: Mr. A. S. Bankart £SOO, Mr. Alfred Nathan and Mr. David Nathan £250 each. Sir George Elliot, Mr. W. R. Wilson, Mr. Fred Wilson and Mr. Edward Russell, £SO each. The need for development of obstetrical science in New Zealand formed the subject of an interesting address by Mr. Kenneth Mackenzie. The maternal mortality rate of New Zealand, he said, was about the world average—five in every 1,000 births. The percentage of still-births, which was not improving, stood at 30 per 1,000, and, in addition, 20 children in every 1,000 were lost in the first week of life.

Measures taken to improve maternity conditions were described by Mr. Mackenzie. He said the Government had appointed a prominent obstetrician, principally in an advisory capacity, and the Health Department had tightened up the regulations governing maternity homes, but without apparent change in the death rate. He proceeded to refer to the value of the post-maternity clinics established in connection with St. Helens Hospitals, and the Plunket Society, and to the formation in recent years of the New Zealand Obstetrical Society. This organisation had done well to urge the necessity of providing its own medical school, and the scheme had now reached the constructive stage where the appeal was being launched. _ At the Otago Medical School, said Mr. Mackenzie, there were professorships in medicine and surgery, but obstetrics had been relegated to a lectureship until a year ago, when it was given the status of a professorship, with an increase in salary from £2OO to £6OO, but the facilities for teaching obstetrical science were not such as the subject demanded. The speaker dealt with the mental attitude of students to obstetrics, which did not have the mana of medical and surgical work, yet it was vitally important that the student should be equipped with obstetrical knowledge. He also pointed out the total lack of facilities for postgraduate training in most hospitals, there .being no resident obstetric officer in New Zealand. The society believed the situation could be overcome by more highly

trained doctors, he said. A highlytrained specialist to devote his whole time to teaching, investigation and organisation was required to place obstetrics on a proper basis. AT A DISADVANTAGE “Our mothers are at a disadvantage compared with those of other countries,” declared the Hon. A. J. Stallworthy, Minister of Health, in referring to New Zealand’s maternal mortality rate of 4.75 a 1,000, which placed the Dominion fourteenth on the list. The Minister asserted that the sex tragedies in New Zealand had some relation to the maternal death rate, and responsible men and women had to be awakened to this fact. The United Government had faced the problem, he said, by strengthening the nursing and midwifery services in St. Helens Hospitals, particularly in the rural areas, where the mortality was greater. The ante-natal nursing service had been increased and co-opera-tion had been extended to the Plunket Society. This year, the Minister stated, the Government was pledged to find £50,000 for a maternity hospital at the Otago Medical School, and was committed to extent of £25,000 subsidy to the fund for the Chair of Obstetrics. Further, the Government was just about committed to an additional £IO,OOO over the next five years for the maternity hospital in Dunedin. He realised that public expenditure was assuming large propor tions, and economic responsibilities would call for more self-discipline than had hitherto been exercised. He assured the audience, however, that while he was Minister of Health, he would not begin economising in the obstetrical service and would give all reasonable assistance to the work. An eloquent plea for a “fair deal for the mothers” was made by Dr. Buckley Turkington, who referred to the illness and disability suffered by many women after the birth of the first child. Investigation into the causes was urgently required, she asserted. Dr. Tracey Inglis urged that every effort should be made to restore the maternjty nurses to the plane occupied by the medical and surgical profession. The former were “looked down on,” he said, and every endeavour should be made to induce the medically and surgically trained nurses to go on to obstetrical work.