WOMAN'S HOPE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 108, 9 May 1930, Page 3

WOMAN'S HOPE

WELFARE OF MOTHERS

NEEDLESS SUFFERING

HOSPITALS FOR POOR

(By Mrs. Stanley Baldwin, in an InterView.) (Copyright.) Suppose that each year we allowed three thousand innocent young boys, whose lives we ; could save, to die. Should we, could we be regarded as a civilised people? Are we civilised when we let die— for that is what it amounts to—three thousand equally innocent mothers? For that is what we do. Do you know that over three thousand women die annually in childbirth in England and Wales.

Fortunately there are many good and unselfish people who aro working 'for and championing the cause of what I can only call tho three thousand "condemned1" women, for condemned they are (if we cannot find a solution to this mortality) as surely as though they had been sentenced to death in a Court of Law. And lam thankful to say I believe we shall sob the number reduced very considerably during the next few years. But it is not only the saving of the lives of mothers that I hope I live to see. I want to see maternity made easier, I want to sec unnecessary pain averted. I long to see prejudice destroyed in this matter, and in ite place sensible and general application, of scientific knowledge. I feel this very keenly, for I have striven for years to toy to improve the lot of mothers in childbirth all over the world.

I felt obliged to work less publicly for this cause during my husband's term of office, for the wife of a statesman has to be careful that her private opinions are not regarded as political weapons. This was so sacred a mission, in my view, that I could not risk misunderstanding. I wished to keep it absolutely apart from politics. AWAY TBOM THE JUNGLE. My interest was first aroused in this work when I was" a young married woman living in Worcestershire, where our home is. tThis, of course, was before my husband entered' politics. It was when my first baby was born that I realised and was appalled at the suffering involved in bringing a child into the world. The argument flung at me was that it was "Nature's way." That is a worn-out contention to my mind, and in direct contradiction to all principles of civilisation, for what is civilisation but, for a good part, direct opposition to "Nature's way"? If the world were sincoro in its claim to admiro "Nature's way,'' we should 'still be a jungle people, living like the aborigines, who, incidentally, I believe, have far shorter and less healthy lives than civilised peoples. I was even reminded that when Quoen Victoria herself had insisted upon having an anaesthetic, it had met with general disapproval and had actually been denounced from the pulpit! But, of course, that is only hearsay.

Indeed I hope to live to see the day when wo cease talking of Nature as though we were a primitive people living in primitive conditions. If we had faith in Nature, why spend millions on the upkeep of hospitals, why give social services of any sort, why sanction a Ministry of Health, why seek to improve" hygiene, or wipe out epidemics, or remove a gangrenous appendix, or,1 for that matter, clothe ourselves and live in houses? This may all be the result-of civilisation of mankind, but, on the other hand, as things are, it is the mission of civilisation to tame Nature, to adapt conditions and improve humanity. I know people will say it is civilisation we must blame, not Nature, but that is tho fault of our forbears, not ours. PIEST INVESTIGATIONS. * Since I had been through so much, despite the tender nursing and care that I received, my thoughts were turned towards those still less fortunate who, naturally, would get less attention, and had to go through tho same ordeal; but worse than my own. I began to investigate, and the conditions that were disclosed to me in those days would touch the heart of any human creature were I only able to describe these in detail. Alas, there is much that cannot possibly appear in print. I learned that in many cases the" conditions around me were such that the unhappy mother, having nowhere to go, must needs pive birth to her baby in the very mifst of the daily round of life. Privacy was a privilege hardly granted. Cleanliness was out of the question. You must remember that ; I am speaking of over thirty years ago. It ,was because we felt that something must be done that my husband and I saved up, when young married people, and provided a maternity nurse for our country district. The first step forward, I remember, was to place a screen round the bed of the patient. But while this was mentally helpful to the mother, it did not mitigate the fact that the bed itself was occupied by three or four. Still, it was a beginning. At all events it was my initiation into the handling of one of the most urgent and difficult problems of tho day.

As time went on niy interest increased. On all sides one hears complaints of a declining birthrate, and it came to me that the suffering that women were compelled to endure to bear a child might have a direct relation to a decrease in the population, and that anaesthetics might be employed to lessen that suffering. USE OF ANAESTHETICS. Meanwhile, I studied carefully the results, the pros and cons of anaesthetics administered in childbirth. I learnt that there were different kinds of anaesthetics and that it was possible to administer them in a manner that would not render the mother unconscious, but, merely lesson her pain and give relief. I realised, too, that the real fight, the battle that was on my' hands, would be a prolonged and hard one.

Even to-day childbirth, to the majority of women, is a more terrible ordeal than a surgical operation—this is bocause it is admittedly impossible to perform, major operations without anaesthetics. Anaesthetics are given even for the setting of a broken limb, the removal of tonsils and teeth, and who could compare such pain with'that of childbirth?

One of the old-fashioned arguments against anaesthetics is that unless a mother suffers to bring forth her child she will not love it. Is there not quite sufficient discomfort during tho pro'l natal period—not to mention tho struggle to bring up a family—to ease tho minds of those who' fear that mothers will not appreciate their children because they have not suffered enough on their account?

Another is that if the mother is given.an anaesthetic, her child is likely to be ■ injured. Even ■my own mother believed that, but I don't think that it is founded on fact. I venture to think that often the danger lies not in giving an anaesthetic but in withholding it (unless of course thero is some concrete reason against it, such as a weak heart), for an anaesthetic certainly lessens tho nervous shock. CAUSE OP THE POOR. There is one aspect of the subject which defies argument^ and it is this:

Why should the mother, who can afford to pay for" an anaesthetic'be permitted to have that help, whilst the mother who cannot afford it, is not? It is this that lam out for —that the poor moher who, in the maternity hospital, receives equal care with her richer sister in all other respects, should have this same option of an anaesthetic. It is this barrier that I want to see swept away. In childbirth —that great bond of womanhood —let the poor mother as well as the rich have the option of an anaesthetic.

I do wish people could realise what it means to a woman to know that she will be cared for, and not allowed to suffer too much. At the Lucy Baldwin Maternity Hospital, my own hospital, which Sir Julicn Calm (one of the first peoplo to grasp what I was trying to do) presented, all mothers have the option, of an anaesthetic, and they are, I think, in a far stronger condition afterwards than those who have not, and are, therefore, I contend, in a far better state to combat any possible after effects.

We want the best people, regardless of class, to give strong healthy children to the nation. And we can help this by studying their feelings as well as thoir actual safety. We must not permit any woman, just because she is poor, to endure avoidable suffering. '

I wonder whether people realise that our women's hospitals are filled with women suffering from the after effects of childbirth, a great deal of which is preventable. It is an acknowledged fact, I believe, that if more care was given to the mother at childbirth half our women's hospitals might' close down. Surely on the cold hard basis of economy this ought to be done, and I believe anaesthetics will materially help.

I have my dream, of course, and although I doijbt that I shall live to see it accomplished in its entirely, I shall feel content that my life has not been in vain if I see only the nucleus materialise. This dream is of a hospital in which mothers bear their babies with a minimum of pain, and in which there are large airy rooms,'and cheerful attendants, where the "old baby" may be looked after until mother and the new baby may safely go home. The mental unrest caused to the mother whose illness has taken her away from her tiny children cannot be very good for the newcomer, and may retard her regaining her strength.

I long to see, too, an extension of the clinics that give pre-natal advice, for I know that it is a valuable thing for the doctor who is to assist the mother at the crisis to be familiar with her previous condition, and for him to be in a position throughout the months of waiting to advise her and to correct any trouble. And it gives her comfort and confidence for what is in front of her. Yes, that is my dream. I wonder— will it ever come to pass?