MATERNAL MORTALITY.

Evening Star, Issue 20556, 7 August 1930, Page 10

MATERNAL MORTALITY.

Lass of life through child birth has always been regarded as u tragic circumstance, but the tendency to .look on it as a decree of fate has been replaced by a desire to discover the reason of the unsatisfactory conditions that have prevailed. That the public interest on this matter is easily aroused was proved by the recent obstetric appeal throughout the dominion, which met .with such a prompt and generous response. The sum aimed at having been subscribed and the money handed to the Otago. University Council, the nest step was to put matters In train for the prosecution of the objects desired. One of the chief of these is the appointment of a full-time professor at a salary of £2,000 to take charge of the obstetric teaching at our Medical School. ■ The £25,000 that has been subscribed carries with it a Government subsidy : of an equal amount, but this will not necessarily be paid in one sum or in one year. In making the appointment of the new professor, therefore, the University Council is tied by financial considerations, and until Cabinet announces its intentions on the question matters cannot proceed much further. It- is understood, that if a Government grant of £IO,OOO is made available for this year,' £IO,OOO next year, and £5,000 in the year following the financial way will be made clear, and the committee to which has been entrusted the task of drawing up the conditions will bo in a position to invito applications for the new post. In this connection it has been suggested by Dr Sydney Allen, • former medical practitioner in Dunedin, that applications should not be limited to the British Empire, but that they should also be invited from Holland and Denmark because of their very favouraßle internationaLposition in comparative statistics. He considers that in those two countries the system of education for doctors and nurses is “ more prolonged and more intensive, and, judging by the results, is superior to that given in the British Empire.” At first sight this may seem an ' attractive proposal, but the arguments against it outweigh those in its favour. In the first place the statistics that are quoted cannot be accepted without a study of the methods by w.hich they are compiled, and of many other factors bearing on the conditions that prevail in Denmark and Holland. Possibly the teaching on the subject of obstetrics in the two countries may be more elaborate than it is in'Great Britain. Indeed, the need for a more extended education of medical students in obstetrics is advocated by a committee on maternal mortality appointed under Government auspice* in England. But that does not necessarily imply that the knowledge of the subject is greater on the Continent than it is in Britain, where medical science stands on a high plane. The language question would not necessarily be a bar to , the . appointment of a foreigner, for many of them speak excellent English, but there are numerous other excellent reasons that negative the suggestion of such an appointment. It may be taken for granted that any British medical man who is selected for the post will have a sufficient knowledge of his job to justify his appointment. 'He will be a specialist who will know • exactly what is being done in the Continental and American schools. Further,' ' one of the conditions laid down, is .that he shall travel for six months in-Europe and America before takipg his chair here,, so that he shall have the opportunity of informing himself of methods of teaching in those centres, , The proposal to have a professor of obstetrics at our Medical School is a great step forward, and, in the hands of a highly-qualified man, important and far-reaching benefits ,to the motherhood of the dominion should follow.