MATERNAL MORTALITY.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 July 1921, Page 6

MATERNAL MORTALITY.

NEW ZEALAND BATE FAB TOO HIGH. Christchurch, June 30. Speaking at the annua’ meeting of the Plunket Society to-day, Dr. Truby King said that the maternity mortality rate in New Zealand was 6 per 1000. That rate was infinitely higher than it should bo. He could say with conviction that it could be brought down to one half, and he was confident that with proper care it could be reduced to one-third, because we knew the factors at fault, and that the essential causes were ignorance, carelessness, lack of proper cleanliness, and what might be termed “meddlesome midwifery.”

Dr. John Guthrie, junior, speaking on behalf of the British Medical Association, said that though maternal mortality might sometimes be due to carelessness on the part of medical men, there were various other possible sources of puerperal septieaeia. In his own experience as a medical man extending over 18 years, he had know cases of septicaemia in which the function had been perfectly normal and natural without any interference of any kind. All cases were not due to “meddlesome midwifery.” In 2 per cent, of the cases in the Maternity Ward of the Christchurch Hospital at all times the patients carried with them the seeds of such trouble, i in the form of some pelvic infection. Dr. Truby •King said that Dr. Guthrie must have misinterpreted his meaning, which he had probafily conveyed in loose terms. He had intended no reflection on the medical profession. By “midwifery” he meant to include women who attended on maternity cases befire and after birth, and he had been speaking in a broad sense only. He knew that members of the medical profession were to be relied on to do their utmost in the great work, but they must have the backing of the nurses, and more particularly of the public, if the society were to succeed in its objects.