MATERNITY SERVICES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 60, 8 September 1937, Page 5

MATERNITY SERVICES

AUCKLAND DISTRICT

INADEQUATE FACILITIES

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

AUCKLAND, September 7.

Outspoken commentary on the inidequacy of maternity institutions in Auckland was made by the chairman of. the Government's. Maternity Services . Committee, Dr. D. G. McMillan, M.P., at a luncheon organised by the Society for the Protection of Women and Children.

He remarked that the Auckland Hospital Board had lagged behind other parts of New Zealand in recognising its duty to the poorer class of mothers, and pointed* to the entire lack of a public maternity institution on the North Shore.

Dr. McMillan said the committee had covered the ground before it fairly adequately with the exception of the central and south-western portions of the North Island. This part of the investigation had been started by the committee^ visit to Auckland. The Government, he said, recognised the achievements of the past in making provision for public maternity services, but it was also concerned with the future, not so much in improving maternal mortality statistics as in removing distressing ' experiences associated with motherhood.

"There is in New Zealand a very definite swing-over from domiciliary maternity attention to attention in institutions," said Dr. McMillan, "and as far as this country is concerned I think that tendency is to be commended. Throughout New Zealand, however, the committee has found a very general lack of public institutional facilities for what might be termed the middle income section of the community. Many of the good public institutional facilities have an income bar which limits their'services to the poorer sections of the community. Many other excellent public institutions which, from the medical point of view, are perfect, do lack' those little extra hotel facilities which are, the prerogative of every mother. I think it is beginning to be recognised that private enterprise that looks for any return on its capital outlay cannot provide modern institutional maternal care. •'.

"The committee has . found that maternal institutional facilities throughout New Zealand are fairly adequate with the exception of the Westland district, the Takaka-Colling-wood district, and Auckland city. It is somewhat difficult for strangers to understand how it has been that the Auckland Hospital Board, over such a long period of years of public service, > has lagged behind other parts of New Zealand in recognising its responsibility to the poorer mothers of the city. Even if St. Helens Hospital could meet the needs of the poorer section ,of this city, which is impossible, I do not think anyone would argue that it would possibly meet the needs of the people of North Shore and many other outlying suburbs. On the North Shore there are over 20,000 people with no public matenfity institutional facilities whatsoever, and the same can be said of half a dozen other large areas on the outskirts of the city. It is sincerely to be hoped that the Auckland Hospital Board does recognise its responsibility to the poorer mothers of Auckland."