LEAGUE OF MOTHERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 14, 16 July 1937, Page 14

LEAGUE OF MOTHERS

MRS. PETER FRASER'S ADDRESS

Commenting on the Coronation. dedication service, Mrs. Peter Fraser■iremarked what ' a wonderful aid-,.', to humanity it would be if women .could dedicate themselves in the same-way to the service, of health, when '• she spoke at a recent meeting of the Miramar branch of the League: of Mothers. The rearing of healthy and " happy children, sound both mentally, arid physically, was' a mother's most important task, she said, and was of vital importance to the State. During her-trip abroad she/was keenly , interested! ,in ,the new developments in. health"that were talcing place in Great Britain.'..A health centre established1 at Peckham, she considered was the greatest,/ advance Britain had made since the World War. She gave a resume ot how the centre came into being, and said it was not for individual medicaL treatment, :but for family or group examinations. No member :of the family needed go outside for activities of any description. Wonderful benefits resulted in curing stammering1 an d. squinting cases by non-operative' methods, 65 per cent, of the cases treated being successful^ ...

The health of the industrial workers claimed the attention of medical, men and lay workers, said Mrs. Fraser, and experiments with artificial sunlight had resulted in clinics being built at the pitheads, the mining districts : being chosen as representative of the industrial areas.. The difference in. the physique of the boys attending the clinics was such that it aroused the interest of the whole community,. with the result that all members of the family' attended, nursing mothers in particular. - : i

Another new development in health treatment that interested her was the Margaret Morris Movement. Miss Morris, a dancer by profession, tiring of ballet dancing, attended classes and closely- studied the Greek form -.arid movement. The exercises were graceful, and much improvement had been made, in . deformity and .. infantile paralysis cases. A further course of study' in anatomy arid physique resulted in. maternity exercises, these-being done before and after childbirth, to the benefit of both mother and child. Maternity exercises, of which breathing was the main feature, were performed in Scotland and England for some time, and the speaker hoped that they would be carried out in the St. Helens hospitals in the near future.

A hearty vote of thanks was. accorded Mrs. Fraser for her enlightening address.

Mrs. Wall presided, and solos by Mrs, Wiltshire and items by the choir were much enjoyed. :