Maternity Mortality

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume XLIII, Issue 5256, 11 March 1922, Page 3

Maternity Mortality

MIDWIVES SHOULD BE BETTER TRAINED.

"Ninety-five per cent of. women should bear children without the least danger of death.. If numbers of women die in nursing homes and maternity hospitals, something must be wrong."

The foregoing statement was made to n reporter by a well known medicU man who has just returned from the British Medical Association Conference in Wellington. He dealt briefly with the discussion on maternity mortality that h:id taken place at the conference.

"The State should undertake strict supervision of all nursing homes," he said. "Nurses and midwives who arc not properly trained should not be allowed to take charge of such homes. It is a mutter of grave import that"' the State should take steps to have the length of the midwifery training period extended. One year is not enough foi women to become efficient midwives Nurses have a great deal more training in a public hospital washing floors than midwives have in learning how to perform their duties. The State must act immediately." Government supervision of private hospitals of all descriptions was also important, he said. Medical men should not take up the attitude that it was "infra dig" for them to allow inspections by the State medical service. "Incompetence, not weak women, causes maternity mortality," he concluded.