PRE NATAL CARE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 6 September 1913, Page 12

PRE NATAL CARE.

v The importance of pre-aatal care was dwelt on at the annual meeting of tne American Association for.Stuiiy and Prevention of Infant Mortality. Mrs William Lowell Putnam, the •ebairwoman^of the Women's Municipal ■League, of Boston; writes: "it was to demonstrate what gain would result from pre-natal care tnat tiho league began its experiment in April, 1909. 'liie; results have proved so satisfactory that last year the Boston l*yi#g-in Hospital festaWished 'a prenatal clinic, with a visiting nurse, to carry on the work previously done for •their house patients by the league.' The Boston 13oard of Health also began in 1911 to 6end nurses throughout the city to care for mothers and babies before as well'as after birth. ■".•••'-■

<lThe principle of the league has been that pregnancy is a normal function; and should not only be entered upon, but carried through, under as normal

oouditions as possible—not in a, rest. louse, but in the woman's house, —and that if the home conditions are wrong the remedy lies not in removing the woman, but m improving the home. The number of patients cared for thus far lias been between 1200.and 1300 and they have been ordinary women living Mnder ordinary conditions. Most of ihem are of the working class, which •lias but little or no margin in.money matters, dependent wholly on daily -work for daily bread. "They have come under the care of tho league in various ways—reported i by maternity hospitals, dispensaries, I charitable, agencies, and individuals, j and a few by private physicians. Wo in- ■■ .cist that all shall be under medical care for neither nurse hor layman should as--sume medical responsibility. "The routine of the committee, calls for a visit at least every 10 days, how«ver well the patient may be, and, if -anything untoward arises, visits are made as much oftener as may be necessary. The nurse advises the patient •with regard to diet, clothing,' fresh air, 4ho free use of water both tor drinking .and bathing, rest, recreation, and work; It>ut die never goes beyonu these natural safeguards or trespasses on medical preserves further than to prescribe cascara internally or to strap an aching back £ot external relief. At every visit she takes the blood pressure and" makes certain teste, in 'the hope of thus warding, off cases of possible eclampsia. The statistics of the blood pressure are kept on carefulty-prepared charts. "The result of the care in reducing *lie number of cases which 6how symp.4olllß of threatened eclampsia, or XJright's disease, as the layman calls it, las been most gratifying.* During the first year of this work the percentage «f cases which showed symptoms of this -dreaded disease was 10.2 per cent, of the total number cared for. The second year this was reduced,>to 4.8 per cent-, and last year to only* 1.7 per cent. ■—this with a constantly increasing number of patients. *'In the first year there were two miscarriages, only one.in the second, and none in the past two years. The -percentage of still births has been 2.7 j jper cent., as against a usual average of' 3.8 per cent, where no pre-natal care J ias been given. The babies born pre-; uriaturely are also relatively, few —2.1 per cent, of the total number. Counting even these premature infants, the average birth weight of the babies for the full term of the work has been 71b B£oz., and for the last year 71b 15oz. I "Tne patients are uriuer the care of ""the committee on an average between \ two and three months, but many have | lieen cared for six or seven months, and j in one case for the full term. This 1 Jength of car© is what is most desired, €or it enables the patienta, both mother and baby, to avoid many pitfalls.' *'The patients are almost without exception grateful for the help and comfort given them by the nurses' visits, and many of them are thoroughly appreciative. . Often she has a chance io correct old wives' tales poured into ihe ears of her patients by neighbors -whose qualifications for the position of adviser are like those of the old woman found by a settlement nurse feeding her -grandchild by hanging a fountain syringe full of milk from the mantelpiece and putting the end of the tube in the baby's mouth as it lay in its basket on the floor. The process had the that should nave been expected, and to the nurse's objections the grandmother replied, 'Shouldn't I know how ■to feed a baby; havent's I buried fourteen?' " ■

"Besides this work amongst the moth--«rs, the committee is trying to lower the of infant mortality by persuading -the' Boston School Committee to introduce teaching in the care of babies into the regular curriculum for girls of the seventh and eighth grades of the gramanar schools. Not only would it help the babies of to-day, for these girls are the little mothers to whom the care of ±he baby is often confided by the overworked mother; but the babies of the next generation would profit even more, .for the future mothers would not then start with an ignorance so crass as only to be believed when seen. This teaching would mean an even earlier start ifchan pre-natal care, and; yet it does not ■supersede it, for nothing can ever do that, riot even eugenics, when. it: shall have become exalted and glorified.".