Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, JULY 20, 1938. THE CARE OF MOTHERHOOD.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 July 1938, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, JULY 20, 1938. THE CARE OF MOTHERHOOD.

JN spite of a great deal of good work that has been and

is being done by public, semi-publie and other agencies, the care of motherhood in New Zealand still falls in some respects well short of the standards that ought to be attainable. It may be hoped that practical action towards bringing about a very considerable improvement in maternity services will follow closely on the presentation to Parliament last week of the report of a committee which has completed a comprehensive investigation of these services.

Even to the non-technical reader, it is clear that the report contains' many excellent recommendations and suggestions, the adoption of which will do much to give comfort' and effective help to women in the ordeal of childbirth. While this subject calls in great part for professional and expert consideration, it is or should be of broad interest and concern that the maternity treatment meantime available to a large proportion of the mothers of the Dominion leaves in one way or another a good deal to be desired. In a country where ipany less important and valuable services are being developed apace, often at considerable cost, there should. be no hesitation in determining that efficient and adequate maternity care must be made available to every mother. “Modern maternity care of the standard rightly regarded as necessary in New Zealand,” the committee observes in its report, “cannot be cheap.” This no doubt is true, but probably the cost of the most ample measures of maternity care will not bulk very large, in comparison with what is being spent from day to day and from year to year, on, for example, various forms of entertainment and luxury. ' " ( j On grounds of simple humanity, it is only, right that all the practical help that is possible should be given to mothers in their time of need. At the same.time, there are items of economic and national gain, as well as of cost, to be taken into account in pursuing, that policy. Apart from the fact, that in providing first-class maternpl care something may be done to encourage women to undertake the burdens of motherhood —a consideration of great importance in a country that needs additional population as much as New Zealand does —everything that helps to safeguard motherhood of course strengthens the foundations of general public health. In its particular references to the Wairarapa Hospital Board district, the committee refers to the hardship suffered by some maternity patients in having to be transported for distances of from nine to seventy miles to the Masterton Hospital, and strongly recommends that the Hospital Board should make arrangements: — (1) For the respective local medical practitioners to undertake at a fixed fee the ante-natal and post-natal attention of the poorer patients living elsewhere than in Masterton. (2) For the attention of patients during labour by a medical man. (3) For the admission of patients to the hospital, public or private, nearest to their place of residence, the board being responsible for the fees when necessary. As the committee itself points out, one method of meeting the relatively high costs of a complete maternity service is by a system of health insurance. Since a system of national health insurance is about to be established in New Zealand, there should be no great difficulty in dealing from a more advantageous standpoint than hitherto with the financial questions involved in an improvement of maternity services. Costs probably can be apportioned much more equitably in that way than by throwing the burden on hospital boards. The women’s organisations in this district and elsewhere in the Dominion which are working zealously to improve the lot of women and children and to elevate the standards of home life no doubt will interest themselves actively in the improvement of maternity services now in prospect and use their influence towards having that development directed on right lines. It is one of the better features of life today in a sadly .troubled world that not only the problems of motherhood, but all the - problems that centre on the home, are commanding in an apparently increasing degree the attention that they need and deserve so well. ■