"HURRIED MIDWIFERY"

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 17, 20 July 1921, Page 2

"HURRIED MIDWIFERY"

MEDICAL MAN AND

MINISTER

A COMING' CONFERENCE

Dr. W. E. Herbert recently resented, through The Post, what he described as " the somewhat hasty remarks " of the Minister of Public Health (Hon. C J. Parr), recently made on the subject of maternal mortality in New Zealand. The Minister replied to Dr. Herbert through The Post, expressing his conviction, from evidence at his disposal, that conditions he had described to him led to a great deal of "hurried midwifery." Mr. Pan- also remarked, in reply to Dr. Herbert, that " we have all got to get together in a- spirit of friendly co-opera-tion," referring to dealing with, the position of maternal mortality with the Dominion. Dr. Herbert was asked by a representative of The Post if he had any further comment to make on tho Minister's reply to his criticisms.' , "Yes," he replied, " I have read'the Hon. Mr. Parr's reply to my recent remarks, and regret to note that he has added nothing of interest towards the solution of the difficult problem under discussion. I think it is a pity that a gentleman occupying Mr. Parr's responsible position should have .so .far forgotten himself as to have accused me of ' untruth,' and that he also in the same issue of your paper accused such a well-known and Tespected authority as Dr. Blackmore of uttering ' exaggerated nonsense.' These big medical questions are of such importance to the health of the people that nothing but good can come of a frank and free public discussion of their many aspects by those interested in them, and such opinions, honestly expressed, should surely be free from undignified recrimination. "In his original remarks on.this subject, the Hon. Mr. Parr quoted Dr. Valintine as saying: ' Remedies, if any are needed,- to remove this blot on our mortality returns must be insisted upon by the. Department on the practising members.of the profession, who must be regarded as primarily responsible- for this mortality.' In the face of the figures supplied by the Government Statistician, I leave the public to decide whether this remark did not tend to create ' quite a wrong idea.' "I cordially endorse'the Minister's desire for us 'to get together in a spirit of friendly co-operatiop,' but am amazed at his manner of inviting it. Such cooperation is urgently required to investigate the many causes contributing to our unduly liigh maternal mortality; especially is this true as the returns for 1920 are worse than those for 1917—in fact, the worst on record. Moat doctors are of opinion that for many reasons, foremost among which are our artificial and irreligious modes of living, a-nd our unsuitable education, for girls, that child birth is becoming lesa and less a physiological process and more largely a surgical procedure.. The increased" proportion of abnormal presentations occurring during recent years is common knowledge to the practising members of the profession. These mal-presentations entail longer labour and greater suffering on the part of the patient, and more manipulation on rthe part of the doctor. It is amongst this difficult class that most maternal complications occur.

"No one would welcome relief from the great responsibility. that these casea cause than the practising members of the profession. Indeed, a serious attempt is to be made, for at the annual meeting #of the New Zealand Medical Association, to be held, in Wellington next February, the question of maternal mortality is one of the principal subjects set down for discussion and investigation. ,At that meeting we shall endeavour to have the opinion of leading medical practitioners of the United States, where apparently 'hurried midwifery ' is even more prevalent than in New Zealand, as their returns are even worse than ours. We shall also make public the educative methods which we may rest assured the competent publichealth authorities of that country have already instituted to remedy their own defects."