INFANT WELFARE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 12 September 1924, Page 7

INFANT WELFARE.

PROGRESS AT MOTHERCRAFT CENTRE.

DR. JEWESBURY’S FIGURES

IMPORTANT SUGGESTION BY DR B. MYERS.

LONDON, Aug. 2. The Medical Officer of Health for Kensington presided at a meeting, held in the Kensington Town Hall, when Miss Patterson gave a most inspiring and useful lecture, on the Truby King system of infant welfare work and procedure, and upon the resourcefulness in so many directions of the founder. The lecture was illustrated with a fine set of slides—some statistical, some scenic, and all interesting. Included were views of all the Plunket homes in New Zealand. The chairman mentioned that the Mothercraft Training Centre in Earl’s Court, which had been established by Dr. Truby King, who came to London by invitation specially to make known the methods which he adyocates, had very quickly gained a reputation, which had extended beyond the boundaries of Kensington and beyond the boundaries of England too, for to-day it had a reputation which was international. He was sorry to learn that the Earls’ Court Centre would; soon have to he moved, for the aearch of new premises had discovered nothing suitable in that part of London. But the fact that a new home had been found at Highgate was not going to interfere with the advantages that Kensington would be able to obtain. The progress of the magnificent institution had been watched with great interest, and he realised the benefits that many of the children had derived from attendance at that centre.

Miss 'Patterson held that the preservation of infant life was now. an absolute question of national existence —it was the duty of all citizens, and as citizens men had got to be interested in this matter as well as women. In New Zealand it was reckoned that the healthy-born child was worth £3O or £4O to the State. A healthy child became a national asset, whereas the child who drifted away from health became a national liability. It was necessary for the Mother Country to go to the farthest-off Dominion to learn about preventive work. She was emphatic that it was due to her climate that New Zealand had the lowest death rate in the world. Miss Patterson’s description of how Dr. Truby King had converted a backyard in Wellington into a garden producing wonderful vegetables was much appreciated by her audience, especially, perhaps, the touch about the M.P. who lived next boor and who objected to the wall which Dr. King built for his beans. However, he ultimately accepted graciously the gift of a dish of fine beans.

Dr. R. C. Jewesbury, moving a vote of thanks to Miss Patterson for her exceedingly interesting lecture, said that when she had completed her training at Guy’s Hospital she became interested in the child, and she went in search of a rational method of feeding and management and general upbringing. It was not until she came across Dr. Truby King that she was satisfied she had found a really sound method. From that day she had devoted herself to carrying on this work. Soon afterwards she was whirled away to Poland, then she was at Trebovir X’oad for some time, and later she had been largely engaged in propaganda work in New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa. “People who are not familiar with the method at all usually have a sort of idea that it is a cranky method,” said Dr. Jewesbury, “but the people who know realise that it is a sound method, based on Nature. The method is sound, and most of us are perfectly satisfied with the result. I am convinced that it is the proper method. I went to Trebovir road myself with a perfectly open mind, and I am convinced that it is the soundest method that we have come across. So long as there are babies they Avill have to be lookedi after, and it is the duty of everyone to give these children a proper start in life. If a baby in New Zealand is worth £3O to the State it is worth £3O in Great Britain.” As to the work itself at Trebovir road, Dr. Jewesbury thought the results achieved would be found to provide the best testimony from the,time the centre was started. In 1920-21, the first complete year, the total number of attendances was 1596, and the new cases were 187. In the year 1923-24. attendances had gone up to 4767, and the new cases to 794. Those figures bore very ample evidence that the work was fully appreciated in this country. At Trebovir road they were absolutely pressed to their utmost to deal with the ever-increasing numbers of babies and mothers who go there for advice. In the new quarters they would be able to work on a much bigger scale. One of the greatest obstacles to-day in infant welfare work was the multiplicity of method. Although so many people were taking it up in all parts of the country they were doing it in different ways. He wished it were possible to adopt some uniform system, so that unfortunate mothers could get similar advice from any one of the clinics. A mother might go to as many as five centres, all near one another, and at each ofte the instructions given w T ere entirely different.

Apropos of the subject of infant welfare, Dr. Bernard • Myers (late of Auckland, whose valuable, and successful children’s clinic in the Marylebone district is .well known to most medical nien of New Zealand who have been in London since the war), writes- to support the views of others that a committee should be appointed—“or, better still, a Royal Commission, to investigate infant welfare from every point of view.” Dr. Myers continues: “I think that practically all those who have had considerable experience of this most important subject from the medical or the administrative aspect would endorse such a proposal. May I venture to hope, in the event of the suggestion materialising, that, in addition to welfare centres, all institutions which are being constantly brought into close contact with them should be represented, such as: Treatment Centres, Consultative Centres for Children, School Medical Departments, Country and Seaside Convalescent Homes, and Recovery Hospitals? It may also be thought fit to have representation from lying-in hospitals, certain homes for mother and infant, and children’s hospitals. Only by dealing with the subject from the broadest aspect could the greatest good be obtained for the children, and, therefore, for the nation. Judging from our experience at the Children’s Clinic, Marylebone road, it would appear expedient that such an investigation .should deal with children from birth' up to the age of five years.”