SAYING THE BABIES.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 15918, 4 June 1917, Page 7

SAYING THE BABIES.

THE PROPOSED HOSPITAL, PR. TRUBY KING'S OPINION.

Dr. Truby King, C.M.0., General president of tho Plunket Society, who ,-as in town yesterday, in conversation with a reporter of "The Press," epoko interestingly of the proposal to establish a hospital in Christchurch on the lines of the Ivaritane Hospital in Duncdin. Ho considered it an excellent idea. "Such an institution," he said, "3 established in some bright, clear, sunny 6ite, within easy access of the city, would prove a great blessing to mother and child, as it has proved in tho south. Your committee aro quito right in saying that the Society's hospital at Duncdin cannot accommodato jjjj the babies who urgently need tho kind of skilled caro which they contemplate providing." "Vou mean something different from what would bo available for children in an ordinary hospital—in our own general hospital, for instance?" said tho reporter. •'Yes. Universal experience has shown that babies do not do well in the wards of a general hospital. The whole circumstances and provisions of such an institution aro unsuitable for tho class of cases usually dealt with at tho Karitano Hospital. Babies up to 18 months of age aro comparatively immune from the diseases generally treated in an ordinary hospital, and the infantile dcatji rate is almost entirolv due to what aro called nutritional or diotetic disorders. The great scourge of early infancy is infantilo diarrhrea, which always carries off a largo number of babies during tho hot summer weather. Breast-fed babies suffer eouiparativelv littlo from this complaint, and a vast preponderance of debility and sickncss in infancy is duo to artificial feeding entered on during the first nino months of life. Most of tho babies we dealt with arrive at the hospital in states of great debility and emaciation, and in tho majority of -asw all efforts to get them on tho •icht track in their own homes havo failed; in many cases their lives havo been despaired of. Sometimes tho troubles from which they arc suffering are acute, and sometimes chronic, but in eithor caso, with raro exceptions, these-children do well when they get the all-round hygionic conditions they need. Much can bo supplied by a properly-regulated institution, but which the mother has been unablo ar failed to provide in her own home. The general teaching of 'mother craft' by tho Plunket nurses has very greatly lessened the tendency to sickness in infancy, but it is somotimes impossible to get a baby restored to health in its own home once it has become ill, and wo are assured iy doctors in all directions how gratified they are to have a hospital availiblo where they can rely on the best treatment being immediately carried SU *lt must not be supposed, however, that tho Karitano Hospital is any way limited to tho feeding of babies by artificial means. The great aim and object of tho Plunket Society is to. bring jbout as far a3 possible, the rearing ot ill babies in- the natural way. More and more every year mothers are sent to tho institution with babies whom they are only able to nurse in part, or not at all, with.a view to getting breast feeding established, and teaching the mother, in tho course of a week or two, tho main essentials of mother ernft.' It not infrequently happens that a mother who baa entirely weaned her baby for days or weeks finds herlelf, under proper care and attention, . iblo, in the* course of a short sojourn, to nuree hor child completely. At the present time we are about to provide a special sitting-room, and three bedrooms, for - admission of mothers for this spocial purpose of training and educating them Jn this first and roost important essential for establishing lifelong health and fitness. My experience ■ Is that a. mother taught in this way becomes of inestimable value in conveying what she has'learned to her neighbours and friends. From what I_ have indicated you will realise how entirely different an institution of this kind is from a general hospital for treatment of medical or surgical disease. We never admit to tne Kantane Hospital babies suffering from tuberculosis, or syphilis, for obvious reasons.' "One has heard it suggested that m its efforts to keeo down infantile mortality tho Plunket Sociotv may sometimes bo instrumental in keeping alive children who it would be better should not survive; in other, words, its operation may tend sometimes in the direction of tho survival of tho unfit or degenerate? „ . . . "This point was often raised, in the early stagos of tho Socioty's existence, hut ono rarely hears it nowadays, and never in Dunedin, in connexion with the Karitano Hospital. Indeed, one of our rules is ntvor to admit a child known to bo congenitally defective, that is, defective in the Bense . that. if it grow up it would bo an imbecile or mentally defective. It is very curious how well meaning people will say off-hand about a child that docs not happen to be thriving or who is vory ill, wasted and emaciated, that it would be better dead, when they would never think of making such a remark with regard to an adult. John Burns, in his opening address at the great London Conference on Infant Mortality, somo years ago, said in his emphatic way, 'I do not bolong to tho bettor dead school,' and received a very hearty round of applause for his remark. Tho fact is that the experienco of all of us who havo intimately associated with work of this kind tho world over found that tho chil-'lron whom tho people would lightly dub as better dead turn out just as well ns others when they rocoivo proper humano caro and attention.

• "By this time, evoryono ought to realise that tho purposo for which tlio Society exists is to bring about a higher standard of health, fitness, and efficiency in tho -whole of tho rising generation. "tiswt year, 10 per cent, of tho babies in the Karitano Hospital came from Canterbury, some from tho Coast, afld 7 from the north of Canterbury. It is quite obvious that all the Canterbury casc6 ought to bo looked after within tho province, and I am satisfied that a great saving of lifo and improvement of health would bo brought about by the establishment of tho proposed institution. However, as regards the benefit to the whola community tlicro is no question whatever that the greatest benefit of tho Karitatie Hospital lies in the lessons in mother craft given to tho mothers who visit the institution, the average number of visitors beinr .several thousand a year, and no trouble is spared to teach them the obiect lesson which the institution can afford.''