THE WRONG BABY!

Evening Star, Issue 22798, 5 November 1937, Page 15

THE WRONG BABY!

NERVOUS MOTHERS' FEARS AMUSING DISCUSSION AT PLUNKET CONFERENCE [Per United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, November 4. A remit from Invercargill introduced by Mrs (R M. Strang suggesting that the clothes of babies at Karitane nomes should be numbered or that some other means such as an identification disc should be used so that it would be quite impossible for the identity of a baby to be mistaken was lost at the annual conference to-day of the Plnnket Society. Discussion of the remit caused some amusement. “ Little babies to young girls are something like little lamibs—they are all alike,” said Mrs Strang. She suggested that to prevent mixing babies in Karitane homes a system of numbering cots or clothes, or rings onthe babies’ arms should be introduced. She told of the fears < f a mix-up expressed by a man who had recently become a father. One or two pew nurses might come on duty, she said, or a new sister, and there could easily he a mix-up of babies if they were too busy. If they were always busy they might not be able to recognise the babies. Mrs (Robert Miller (MauriceviUe) said that some means of identification would he very soothing to nervous mothers. Mrs Jowett (Wellington) said that babies’ clothes and blankets were all numbered in the Wellington Karitane Hospital, The father of the Hastings triplets, which had recently left Wellington, had assured her before the babies left that neither ho nor his wife conld distinguish them. Mrs Nathan (Auckland: Is this a precautionary measure, or has an accident happened and a child been mislaid? (Laughter.) Mrs James, Begg (Dunedin, president) : To the best of my knowledge the Plunket Society has never mislaid a child. Mr C. B. Barrowclough (Dunedin): I suppose the father was still a bit dazed. (Laughter.) Miss Fitzgibbon, nursing adviser to the society, said that every baby in the homes was treated as an individual, but it also had a number. Its uame and number were put on its cot. Its clothes were not marked. ** Every baby is allotted to a Karitane nurse,” she said, ” and she is a mother to it. I am quite sure babies could never be mixed up—l don’t think it is possible for a mix-uo to happen.” In the case of quadruplets, twins, or triolets they would be given a disc to identify them. The nurse in charge of the baby or babies took an especial interest in them. Replying to a question. Miss Fitzgibbon said that generally speaking one nurse was in charge of one baby. TATTOOING SUGGESTED. Mr A. C. Cameron (Dunedin) said he had been told that if a disc were put around a baby’s neck it would probably strangle itself. “ Put it anywhere else round the baby’s anatomy,” he continued, “ and it will he taken off when the child is bathed, and then the child might be mixed up. The only thing to do is to tattoo it.” (Laughter.) Dr M. B. M. Tweed: I can assure you that everything is done that is humanly possibly in the Karitane homes to prevent a mix-up. In fact, the danger is practically infinitesimal. He went on to say that in some places in the United States and elsewhere finger prints and to© prints of babies were taken to prevent a tnjx-iip. In all his experience, however, n© had never met a case where a mother, having once handled her baby, could not know it again. The remit was then put to the vote and lost.