RUN BY WOMEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 58, 9 March 1936, Page 10

RUN BY WOMEN.

A MISSION HOSPITAL.

ESTABLISHMENT IN INDIA,

Particularly interesting to women is one branch of the work of tlic Xcw Zealand Baptist Mission, stationed at the small town of Chandpur at the junction lof the Bengal-Assam railway on _ the banks of the great Brahmaputra River. This branch, the New Zealand Baptist Mission Hospital, staffed and run by women for women and children, was vividly described by Miss Nola M. Ivory, a missionary who recently returned ic Wellington on furlough, in an interview in the "Dominion." "Some 30 years ago," said Miss "Dr. Charles North, now of Dunedin. built a small hospital in Chandpur, and there laid the solid foundations of a fine medical work. For many years the work was general in character, the doctors, dressers and compounders all being men. Its reputation as a centre of sound medical treatment grew, but while large numbers of men and comparatively small numbers of women patients were treated, it was felt that there was a definite need for a hospital solely for women and children. "The population of the Chandpur district is about 75 per cent Mohammedan, the remainder being mostly Hindu. In both these religious societies there is reluctance on the part of both men and women to have their womenfolk treated by men. In fact, the feeling is so strong among the Mohammedans that they would rather let the woman die or go on suffering than 'allow her to be examined bv a man. Often the husband or some other man relative would come to the dispensary and retail what ho could of the patient's symptoms, taking away bottle after bottle of medicine, while the patient herself grew worse and worse, and the doctor probably fumed at the futility of such treatment. "There are other very fine hospitals, but ours is the only hospital solely for women and children in all East Bengal. Our hospital is small, having accommodation for only about 32 patients, and as each patient usually brings a companion and many bring a baby as well, we arc often cramped for space. Small though it is, however, it is remarkably well equipped, and though in India moss and rust corrupt, and damp seeps through the walls, still, under the able supervision of Miss Livingston, the nurses maintain a high standard of cleanliness. Good Native Nurses. "There are II Bengali nurses," Miss Ivory continued, "seven of whom are still in training. The lectures we give are much the same standard as those given at home, but of course the matter has to he simplified very much as the lectures have to be given in the Bengali language. The girls make very good nurses on the whole, though some need a good deal of supervision.

"Disease is widespread throughout the district. The country is low-lying aiul has numberless canals and tanks, or small' artificial lakes, so that malaria and other insect-borne diseases are almost universal. The highly insanitary living conditions make bookworm and other intestinal parasites, dysentery, typhoid fever and cholera very prevalent. "Since we have started our purely women's work we have not had the opportunity to develop extensively any of the branches of preventive medicine," Miss Tvory concluded. "Owing to the universal success of «uch midwifery work as we have been able to do, that branch of our work is steadily growing, and through that we are building up for the foundations of ante-natal and post-natal work. We have not attempted to 'boost' the work in any way.