MEDICAL MEN AND MATERNAL WELFARE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 200, 24 August 1926, Page 9

MEDICAL MEN AND MATERNAL WELFARE.

INSTRUCTION IN MIDWIFERY.

Dr. H. Jellett, of Christchurch, consulting obstetrician to the New Zealand Health Department, has not, since his first arrival in this country, been mucu in the public mind, for the great interest in maternal mortality then exhibited has almost faded out. It was the "Star" which, in 1921, drew general attention to the need for improvement in the education and training of men and women tending confinements, and for the more moderate use of instruments in delivery.

Now, in Dr. Jellett's report to his Department, he says that unnecessary surgery has been imported into maternity work, more especially in the form of abdominal section (Caesarean) for delivery where difficulties, which could be otherwise overcome by less drastic methods, present themselves. He pleads for more thorough instruction .in midwifery, and says that this could be arranged for in the four large cities of the Dominion. He quotes Professor W. Williams, who has written in connection with surgical procedure in confinements: "The prime factor concerned in bringing about this abuse is defective medical training, with consequent ignorance of the wonderful adaptability of nature and of the resources of obstetrical art. Subsidiary factors are to be found in the technical use of the operation, and in the glamour which still surrounds it in the professional and l*y mind, as well as in an underestimation of its mortality." And. Dr. Newell, who writes as follows: "There is no question but that many Caesarean sections are performed every year simply because the consultant called to the case has no knowledge of obstetrical diagnosis and technique. He sees a patient whom the family physician has failed to deliver, and, without the proper knowledge to determine what the patient really, needs, he empties the uterus by the abdominal route as the easiest method. His surgical conscience would probably not allow him to perform an ordinary operation, with so little appreciation of the needs of the patient, and women in labour should not be exposed to such unscrupulous methods."

Dr. Jellett has nothing but praise for ante-natal (before birth) clinics, and adds: "I regard Dr. Paget's pamphlets on antiseptic treatment (in labour) as most valuable, and I think that if the directions contained in them are carried out conscientiously by nurses and by patients, they will materially aid in reducing maternal mortality, not only from septic infection, but also from the other complications of pregnancy and labour. I hope that full effect has beeu given to his recommendation that sterilised maternity outfits shall be available for the use of patients."