‘Assistance Needed’

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31349, 20 April 1967, Page 2

‘Assistance Needed’

“The problem of Illegitimacy is causing great worry to us all, and I feel we can find little solace in the fact that it is a world-wide problem,” Mrs H. J. Walker, wife of the Member of Parliament for St. Albans, said welcoming guests to a function at Bethany Maternity Hospital yesterday.

Unmarried mothers, particularly those in the younger age groups, were in need of expert assistance during the ante-natal confinement. The provision of these services might be costly, but it would be much more costly for the community if they were not available.

“Bethany is not just a haven or refuge for the latter period of the girl's pregnancy. It is a home, where perhaps they receive more real understanding than some had in their own homes," Mrs Walker said.

“The majority of the girls arrive at the home smarting from their initial shame, and probably resentful because they feel they have been let

down. They are fearful of what lies ahead, and uncertain of how they will cope with the future.”

The problem of adjustment was the first the prospective mother must manage to enable her to give birth to a well-balanced child. “After the birth of her child she must then make the decision whether she will sign her baby for adoption or make an attempt to retain it and care for it herself. This decision must be entirely hers and I am sure must cost her much torment and anguish. “Major Greig, the matron, carries a heavy responsibility. Not only must she be responsible for the medical care of all her patients, but she must also prove herself a tower of understanding,” she said. Tribute must be paid to the Salvation Army for the splendid work it was doing, Mrs Walker said. “I feel the Salvation Army could quite rightly advertise itself as the firm where no job is too small, and none too big, too awkward, or too difficult to tackle,” she said.

Accompanists Appointed.— The Christchurch Wahines* Club has appointed Eunice Higgins as its choir mistress and official accompanist and Nance Mason as assistant accompanist.