OUR BABIES.
FBI HISEIA.I
Published nnd«r the auspices of th« Society lor the Health of Women and Childrou. 1
"It is wiser to out ud a. fcnce at tho top of a precipice than to maintain an ambutance at the bottom." EDUCATION AND INFANT WELFARE. England Waking Up. It is a hopeful sign to find a column in tie latest BritisG Medical Journal devoted to a report by the mcdicnl officer to the Board of Education on tko subject of "Education and Infant Welfare."
"Until tlus year the reports havo dealt with the condition of the school child. Attention has been fooussed on the improvement of the child's environment in school and the amelioration of such defects as are found to hinder its progress in school. This work and also the marked attention that has been drawn to the hereditary factors in disease have had the result of throwing back the focus of attention so that it is to the infant, and still more to the mother of the iufant, that attention is being directed.
"The diseases of the school child are the_ result in too many cases of neglected infantile conditions, and these, again, are tie result of maternal neglect, or of ignorance in the young mother. ■ Education in Mothercraft a State Necessity. "The education of the mother is thus recognised as a' factor of primary importance. and with that there is the acknowledgment of mothercraft as one of the chief—if, indeed, it be not the chief —industry of the State.
"Infant mortality is still too high. In 1913 no fewer than 95,801 children under one year of age died in England and Wales, or 108 per 1000 of. births, 'l'bat the condition of the mother has much to do with the vitality of her child is shown by the fact that of legitimate the death-rate was 104, whilst of illegitimate births it was as high as 213. 'l'he figures show a decline on past years; but the.y are'still too high. The most serious causes of mortality are given as. Emdemi'c diarrhoea and enteritis, duo co bad feeding; prematurity and immaturity and' congenital defects, due in part to poor maternal physique or disease; bronchitis and pneumonia, due to exposure to cold and infection. ■se three groups are responsible for 70 per cent, of the deaths.
A. Colossal Loss. "The lost labour and energy represented in.these infant deaths, not to take into consideration the potential loss of bo many lives,.is-colossal. So many women have for nine months been. semi-invalided, and all to no, purpose. The.y have, given of their life energy; and all to no purpose. - They have sustained the shock of birth and the added shock of the loss of the child. Again, these things have now a monetary value, since the pregnant woman costs the insurance funds so much for her temporary incapacity, and the maternity allowance is wasted. It is therefore 011 the meanest grounds good policy to spend in the hope of retrieving such heavy wastage as this..
The Remedy. "What is proposed is the concentration of attention on improved feeding, higher, standard of maternal physique, and appropriate infant management. Those are the direct personal matters that require remedy. In addition there are certain external causes of infant mortality—'domestic insanitation in the widest sense of the term, industrial employment of married women, unsatisfactory systems of the disposal of excreta, the unfavourable conditions of urban life, overcrowding, unpaved yards and streets/ inefficient scavenging, poverty, and filth." Of these we would place the employment of married women as the chief . offender.
England Following a French Lead. • "Mothercraft is now being taught in the public elementary schools, not only by way of lessons in personal hygiene and domestic economy, but by arrangements whereby parties of girls attend at schools for mothers, day nurseries, and the like. Similar work is done in the evening classes for adolescents and adults."
' [Extracts from Medical Report to Board of Education, as published in the British "Medibal Journal" for March 20, 1915.1
Mothercraft Education in New Zealand Schools. Between five and six/;years ago the first definite series of school lessons in mothercraft in the Dominion was given at the Tima'ru Technical Sohool'by the Plunket Nurse, Miss Bowman, who was the first matron of the Karitane Hospital. This was a course of seven lectures and demonstrations, arranged for by Mr. Grant, the head master of the school, who spoke very warmly as to the excellence of the teaching and the gieat interest shown by the girls who attended.
Equally striking is the testimony of the headmaster of the Nelson High School, in reference to a series of nine lectures recently inaugurated at. his institution by the local Plunket Nurse, Miss Morgan, whose course is outlined below.
I cite the cases of Timaru and Nelson merely because their . courses of school teaching in mothercraft represent respectively the first and the most recent that have come under our notice. Similar work has been done by Nurse Chappell in the North Island, and by Miss • Baker, the Plunket Nurse at Oamaru, and by others.
Motheroraft Syllabus for Nelson High
School. Lecture I—Air. Abundance of pure, cool, outside air flowing fresh and free day and night', etc.
Lecture ll—Food. Birth to nine months. Demonstration: Making No. 1 humanised milk.
Lecture III —Food, nine months to two years. Demonstration: Making humanised milk, No. 2. Lecture ' IV—Cleanliness, _ bathing, clothing. Demonstration: Bathing baby. Lecture V—Muscular exercise and sensory stimulation. Warmth, _ regularity of all habits. Demonstration. Lecture Vl—Mothering management, rest and sleep. Demonstration: Making baby's bed. Lecture Vll—Milestones on. baby s road.
Lecture Vlll—Cries of baby. Lecture IX—Teeth, dummy or comforter. Demonstration.
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Bibliographic details
Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2462, 15 May 1915, Page 11
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939OUR BABIES. Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2462, 15 May 1915, Page 11
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