WHAT KILLS THE BABIES ?

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 17017, 14 December 1920, Page 2

WHAT KILLS THE BABIES ?

» INDUSTRIAL LIFE FOE GIRLS. "Before her marriage, much of a woman's fitness for motherhood is determined," said Dr. Cumpston, Federal Director of Quarantine, in an address at the annual congress of the .National Council of Women is Melbourne recently, He suggested very earnestly that careful consiueration should bo given to i the effect of the employment of girls and young women in various industries upon their fitness for the /jreat tiuties oi life; and that greater importance should be paid to the qualifications necessary for the highest motherhood. Tho nerve strain on young women in industrial life is considerable. They miisS , rise early; they take hasty breakfaste, have perhaps half an hour's journej in' nerve-racking electric trams, and the subsequent incessant noise ana bustle J and nerve-disturbing experiences of tho rest of the day, all of which are serious"jy. detrimental to maternity. While this had made no appreciable diminution in tho birth rate, there had been a 7 per cent, increase in the consumptive death rate in England, definitely attributable to employment of women in industries. There was here a serious need for investigating conditions of industrial employment of v/omen—by women, not by medical men. This was a most important branch of preventive medicine, and it should be undertaken without delay. It was a field for woman medicalgraduates to make pcculiarlv their own.Passing on to maternity statistics, Dr. Cumpston said the "time had arrived for ante-natal work to .be commenced without delay. While the infantile death rate for the Commonwealth had diminished from 8 per cent, to 5 per cfent. in the past ten years', there had been no decline in the mortality in the first month of life. (Answering Dr. Constance Ellis, he said there had been no decline in any country that ho knew of, For tho first month.) It was a standing reproach to us. Of the deaths during the first year, 62 per cent, die in the first month, 45 per cent, in the first j week. "These succumb," he said, "totheir own inherent weakness, and they number 30CO anuually! These die as a I result of the ill-health of their mothers." (A voice: Or fathers!) Dr. Cumpston did not wish to distribute the blame unequally, and some fathers were i to blamo too. * ■ J There were in tlio Commonwealth annually from 1000 to 1500 deaths of mothers from puerperal causes. In welllfianaged hospitals the average is less than 1 per cent. There should be a much better record than this for the Commonwealth. These mothers usually Hie in their second or their'third confinements, and their ages are between 18 and 25. Here is a very-jvide field to conquer. There must 'be an extension of ante-natal and confinement work; modification of the Notification of . Birth Act, and a ereater supplv of qualified midwives. How many of" these deaths of mothers and infants are due to domestic fatigue? "Kitchen neurasthenia" is becoming recognised as a oauso, and tired mothers cannot come through their strain properly. He urged:—l. An attempt should be rmdo to settle whether employment of girls in industry is prejudicial to maternity. 2. , Deaths during first week of life should he reduced. 3. Increased Cf>re of mothers before, during, and after confinement. We ,iro five to seven years behind England in tho care of mothers, nnd an effort shcnld at on<v« bo made to Wing aTjoufc reforms in mafiers where there can be no difference- of opinion.