OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 34, 3 November 1917, Page 2

OUR BABIES

[By Higiu.i

i „ p ?blisbed „ nder tho aus „ trcs ot tdß t"iMj J Cor m Hea ' lh of Women and Children. "It Is wiser to put up a fence at the iop 01 a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." "SAVE THE BABIES." "The Uaco marches forward on the feet of Little Children." Aro you a. patriot? Do you want, your pat on to survive? Arc you determined that nevor again shall there be 60 per w 5 k Possible rcjecls in our commun- „„,'• r 60 ' Eiui y an d ponder the following facts:— Our First Handicap. What with the unborn and the prematures Now Zealand is very greatly handicapped in the rnco for life and population. Prematurity accounts for over a [bird of our infantile mortality. .Even the babies horn at full term are mostly not as strong and vigorous as they should be, owing to lack of open-air cicrcise, etc., on tno part of the mothers. The mother's health is tho baby's health. The gravest diseases of the day are not cancer or consumption, but the universal decay of weak and badly-built tcotb, which;undermines tho wholo system, and predisposes to all diseases. / Our Best Immigrants. / In the next, ten years nearly 300,000 (certainly over a auartor of a million) children will be born in Now Zealand. Almost every new-born babe is capable of living and doing well if properly treated; but, owing to ignorance and neglect of health and proper attention, the majority of our mothers and babies arc not; nearly as strong and well as they should be. Many babies still suffer from easily-avoidable diarrhoea and malnutrition,/which handicaps them for tho roßt of life, aud some IMO die every year. As the New Zealand baby death-rate was reduced 2J per cent.; in tho seven years 1907-14, should we riot'aim at another 23 per cent, reduction-halving tho present rate-in tho next'l4 yearß? Why uot-wo can if we will! Our infantile death-rato could be much further reducod by the proper education of school-girls in mothercraft, and by Bimple, practical instruction of the mothers in their homes and elsewhere by means of thoroughly competent and speciallytrained nurses. Women ought to be taught in a Bimple, practical, convincing way tho laws and needs of lifo in respect to fresh air, suitable food, regular exerciso, clothing, etc.

Assets v. Liabilities. Every healthy young adult is worth over £300 to tho country, .livery unhoalthy wastrel and dependant who haß to be kept by the public is a grave liability instead of being an asset. There are, for instance, at the present moment many insano persons and other uufortunatcs who havo cost tho Dominion from £500 to £1000 each in maintenance.

Hospitals (public and private) will soon be costing us directly about £1,000,000 a year, to say nothing of the enormouß loss emailed by chronic debility and the withdrawal of nurses and invalids from spheres of work which would give a return to tho country. We went to prevent our normal assets from continuing to be converted through ignoranco. and neglect into grave liabilities. The sickness and debility of babies aro due to mere Ignoranco and carelessness; rarely to intentional neglect or cruelty.

111-health Life's Main Handicap. The main caußu of submergence and failure in the battle of life is 111-health. Our expenditure on hospitals and charitable aid will keep on growing as long as wo continue rearing and educating the raoe in ignorance, and indeed In detianco, of the primary laws of Nature. We must become more sensible, normal, and healthy in our habits; we must cet back nearer to Nature; .we must must avail ourselves more and more fully of ascertained knowledge as to the simple, beneficent, easily understandable, easily followed laws of healthy living. If man would but make use of what is known regarding the essentials for. the health of human beings, as he is making use of similar knowledge in the perfecting of plants and animals, there would be no ground for setting up further commissions to Inquire into tho causeß underlying the tendency to deterioration and unfitness on the part of civilised niaukind —thoro would he no deterioration to worry about.

With all our advantage in the present day, tho human race should be going ahead, not falling behind. The first step in the line of progress must be a general recognition of tho duty of health and the rights of the next, generation, which we can best promote by firmlv establishing the health of women and "children.

We Got What We Deserve. Every country has just as many unfortunates, invalids, and criminals as it deserves no more! 111-health means unemployableneas; unemptoyablcness means morbid thought and feeling; and morbid thought and feeling imeans loafing, vice and crimo!