MATERNITY NURSES.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 249, 20 October 1924, Page 13

MATERNITY NURSES.

(To the Editor.) \ Sir.—lt was a great pleasure to see in j last night's "Star," that at last someone has the courage to speak out and endeavour to right the wrong being done maternity uurses both in New Zealand and elsewhere. We, as a body of women, have suffered most unjustly from repeated attacks from public speakers. E.H.M. states that in Denmark, where maternity cases are attended by nurses only, the mortality rate is very low. This places the responsibility on the medical profession and not on the poor nurses. This would appear to be true, for have we not an example of that in Rt. Helens hospitals, where a doctor is not called in, except in abnormal cases, and the mortality rate is lower than in private houses ? Mr. 'Wallace in his remarks at the Hospitals Conference in Wellington condemns all maternity nurses as being unfitted. Does Mr. Wallace realise that the nurses who are doing this work today, giving both time and money in the interest of the women of New Zealand, ' have had to pay for their training, and the privilege of working in St. Helens hospitals for twelve months for nothing? It is true that now nurses may train free of charge. It is quite time nurses training for midwifery were paid the same as they are in the public hospitals. If this were done then they could afford to put in a longer period of training as suggested by Mr. Wallace. In the meantime I would suggest that some effort be made to find out whether the cases attended by a doctor, or those by a nurse only, are more often infected with septicaemia. Then Mr. Wallace should remember there are still a large number of midwives practising who are registered under the Act, but who are not trained, also a number of women : who have no qualification whatever), but wlio are allowed by the laws of New Zealand to attend maternity cases. I think before maternity nurses are condemned, there should be a sifting out of these untrained ones, or some training 1 undertaken by them. I would advise all trained midwives in the future to add the words "qualified by exam." after their names in the telephone directory and elsewhere, so tnat mc puuuc nmjr know whether they are getting a trained nurse or otherwise. —I am, etc., T.M.N.