MATERNITY HOMES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 30 July 1924, Page 5

MATERNITY HOMES.

(To the Editor.) Sir.—There is cause for serious alarm in the report contained in your issue of yesterday relating to the attitude of the Health Department concerning maternity homes. Even under existing conditions they are unable to .cope with the number of patients who require admission, but under the department's new conditions the position of many expectant mothers will be serious in the extreme. The brave mothers who live in the back country are counting upon, their reception into the maternity homes in their respective, districts. Shall these heroic women be denied admission? 1 venture to suggest that, as many women will be in extreme difficulty under the new regime, kindly but inexperienced neighbours will valiantly do their liest to help these mothers. And there will arise, of necessity an army of “Sarah Gamps,” besides which the State -has no right to make conditions more difficult fof\ the. women of the Dominion who are doing “the biggest thing they know” for their country. Even if trained maternity nurses were procurable there ai-e many homes where it is almost imnossible to render them aseptic. Think of the danger! When the department has provided the larger district maternity hospitals it will he time enough to reduce the number of patients in private nursing homes, which are at present a haven of refuge for many. Trusting that the Health Department will propose a more' constructive policy, and that some abler pen than mine will take up the matter.—l am, etc., HELEN WILLIAMS. Hawera, July 30, 1924.