ANTE-NATAL EXERCISES

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29162, 24 March 1960, Page 9

ANTE-NATAL EXERCISES

Doubts Expressed On Value “The Press" Special Service AUCKLAND, March 23. The replacement of ante-natal exercises by some other method in the preparation for childbirth will be undertaken with the approval of the Auckland Hospital Board. A selected group of patients at the National Women’s Hospital will be given special instruction and the results compared with a group handled in the usual way. “For some time there has been considerable debate regarding the value of various procedures employed in preparing expectant mothers for the experience of labour,” said Professor H. M. Carey, of the postgraduate school of obstetrics and gynaecology, in a letter before the board last night. Exercises Eliminated Evidence had slowly accumulated indicating that ante-natal exercises were of no value in themselves, he said. For that reason they had been eliminated from the official programme at the National Women’s Hospital. Professor Carey said that Dr. H. A. Brant, with the assistance of his wife, was anxious to test his technique under controlled conditions in the hospital. For purposes of the scheme, 150 patients having their first babies would be given the advantage of special care, said Professor Carey. Mrs Brant would assist in giving instruction during the ante-natal period and keeping the patients company during labour so that they could apply the instruction given.

“I think it is generally agreed that routine ante-natal exercises are of little value,” said the physician-in-charge of physical medicine. Dr. A. Rowatt Brown. “We have been concentrating on talks on elementary anatomy plus an explanation of the natural processes.”