MATERNITY WORK

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 57, 4 September 1937, Page 10

MATERNITY WORK

DOMINION''INQUIRY

AUCKLAND SITTINGS

The committee set up. by the Minister of Health, the Hon. P. Fraser, to report upon maternity services and means of improving them will hear evidence and inspect institutions in the Auckland metropolitan area next week, beginning on Monday (states the "New Zealand Herald"). It has already visited practically the whole of the Auckland Province, going to North Auckland and Hamilton, in April and the Bay of Plenty and Rotorua districts in August. The personnel of the committee. in- i eludes,all the members of the former! body which inquired into abortion in the Dominion and presented a disquieting report in April last. These are Dr. D. G. McMillan, M.P. (chairman), Mrs. P. Fraser, Dr. Sylvia Chapman, Dr. T. F. Corkill, and Dr T L. Paget, of the Health Department. Mrs. A. M. Hutchison and Mrs. N. G. Kent-John-stone have been added as members of the second committee WIDE SCOPE COVERED. During its tours of the North and South Islands since March last, the committee has inspected public general hospitals, St. Helens hospitals, country maternity hospitals conducted by hospital boards, and maternity homes owned by charitable and religious bodies and private persons. It has also made inquiries into the work of doctors, district nurses, and' midwives in town and-country. The inquiry cpvers all aspects of the problem, including the training of obstetricians and nurses, ante-natal care, and provision of domestic help for mothers during and after confinement. While it was in North Auckland the committee paid special attention to maternity work among the Maoris, which at present is carried on mainly by the Health. Department's native district nurses. Evidence has been heard from medical practitioners, nurses, midwives, matrons of maternity hospitals, Health Department officials, representatives of hospital boards and many others interested.

The purpose.of the inquiry is to advise the Minister upon the best means of attaining the Government's declared objective, which is to provide the best maternity service for mothers of every class in all parts of the Dominion. In this the Government is actuated not only by humanitarian motives, but also by a' desire to arrest, and if possible reverse, the fall in the birth-rate. (