CONFINEMENTS IN HOSPITALS

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27591, 23 February 1955, Page 3

CONFINEMENTS IN HOSPITALS

Visiting Professor’s Views BRITAIN AND N.Z. COMPARED In Britain little more than 50 per cent, of women’s confinements take place in hospitals, but in New Zealand very few women go through their confinements at home. “In this respect you are a long way ahead of us,” said Professor A. M. Claye, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Leeds, in an interview in Christchurch. “It is essential when a woman has any abnormal feature in her pregnancy that she should be delivered in a hospital where any emergency can be dealt with property,” said Professor Claye. It was the policy of the council of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists that every woman should be able to have her child delivered in a hospital if she wished to. The British Government did not agree with this policy, claiming that it would be too costly to provide the extra hospital accommodation, staff and facilities. When told there were some in New Zealand who claimed that women should have their babies at home, Professor Claye said the samS" thing used to be said 50 years ago about surgical operations. “People used to think it was better to have an operation on their kitchen table than in an operating theatre.” New Zealand had fully-equipped ipaternity wards in its public hospitals and private hospitals providing maternity services. It was the job of the staff of such organisations to make the patient feel at home, said Professor Claye. A competent “team” should overcome any apprehension felt by the woman at leaving her home and, from the purely medical viewpoint, the mother was much better off in a hospital. “Natural” Childbirth “I am particularly interested in that subject.” said Professor Claye, when asked for his views on the “natural” childbirth theory of Dr. Grantley Dick Read, who advocates a course of education and special exercises during pregnancy for women so that their childbirth may be more relaxed. “Read’s basic principles are very important, in my view,” said Professor Claye. “A woman property prepared fer childbirth will be more comfortable psychologically and, to a great extent physically, during childbirth.” Professor Claye said he did not believe that, even with adequate preparation, women would experience completely painless childbirth; but there was likely to be less sensation of pain and less recourse to drugs. “Some of the drugs do affect the action of the womb and the starting of the baby’s breathing.” Professor Claye will give three, lectures to the Canterbury division of the New Zealand Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society during his stay in Christchurch.