OUR BABIES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 631, 31 December 1913, Page 2

OUR BABIES.

Publisiiecl under the auspices of the Society for the Health of Women and Children. "It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.'' DR KING'S LECTURE. (Continued.) AIMS AND OBJECTS OF THE SOCIETY. 1. To uphold the sacredness of the body and the duty of health to inculcate a lofty view of the responsibilities of maternity and the duty of every mother to lit herself for the pen feet fulfilment; of the natural calls of motherhood both before and after childbirth, and especially to advocate and promote the breast feeding of infants.

2. To acquire accurate information and knowledge on matters affecting the health of women and children, and to disseminate such knowledge through the agency of its members, nurses, and others, by means of the natural handing-on from one recipient or bensficiary to another, and by the use of such agencies as periodical meetings at members' houses or elsewhere, demonstrations, lectures, pamphlets, booka. etc.

3. To specially train and to employ qualified nurses, whose duty it will be to give sound, reliable instruction, advice, and assistance, gratis, to any member of the community desiring such services, on matters affecting thj health and well being' of women, especially during pregnancy and while nursing infants, and on matters affecting the health and wellbeing of their children; and also to endeavour to educate and help parents and others in a practical way in domestic hygience in general-—ill these things being done with a view to conserving the health and strength of the rising generation, and rendering both mother and offspring hardy. healthy, and resistive to disease. 4. To promote legislative reform in matters pertaining to the heatlb of women and children.

5. To co-operate with any present or future organisations which may be engaged in furthering the foregoing or cognate objects. How far these aims and objects have been realised may be inferred from the account of the work and expansion of the Society contained in the annual report the parent branch at Dunedin issued last April. The report shows that this one branch ha 3 a roll of contributing members numbering 650, and that it expended in the course of last year some .-£ISOO in the service of parenthood, yet. the community doubted only six years ago whether it could support a single nurse devoted solely to the health of mother and child. This report will be supplied to anyone interested, on application to the National Association of the Prevention of Infant Mortality, at Tavistock square, London, W.C.

In the short time and space at my disposal, I can only summarise a few of the special and the leading features of our organisation. The aacuations 'was started as a society for mutual helpfulness and mutual education, with a full recognition of the fact that, so far as motherhood and babyhood were concerned, there was as much need for practical reform and "going to school" on the part of the cultured and well-to-do. as three was on the part of the so-called poor and ignorant'. What our New Zealand women realised was that practically none of them had had adequate practical knowledge and training for motherhood and that this was not a class question but a universal failing of civilised communities. From end to end of Mew Zealand the lightness of the position taken up by the Society has been confirmed over and over again by the oft-repeated remarks of the other mothers, "Oh, if we had only known when our children were babies!" while young mothers, properly directed from the first, tell us how lii:tle trouble their babies are, how much time and worry they are saved, and. in the majority of cases, how completely they can breast-feed their infants,

PERSONNEL OF COMMITTEES. The rnmirwnbties were to embrace all creeds and classes, and they were to m?.et on grounds of common motherhood and humanity, without any race or suggestion of patronage or charity. As conveyed in the second aim. the members were first to acquire accurate information on matters affecting the health of women and children: and then, having arrived at what seemed best, they were expected to do all in their power to convey and disseminate their knowledge personally and through the various available agencies referred to.

RULES FOR PLUNKET NURSES. To make clear what the Society expected of its nurses cannot, do beiter than quote the following passage from the printed rules, regulations, and advice with which they are supplied:— "The main function of the Society's nurses is to educate and help parents and others in a practical way in the hygiene of the home and nnrspry with a view to conserving the health of the whole family,, while directing special attention to the needs of mother and offspring. "Ths Society is extremely anxious to bring about a realisation of the 'suffieingness' in general of obedience

to the simple know:* huvs of lifts and Nature lor main taining the h-oalth of mother and child, and *the inevitable Nemesis which folmws sooner or later o:; any • vasion of duty in this respect. ''Above all, tlie society deaires to avoid the re?ortine; to anything savouring of mystery, or suggestive of special knowledge, or powers outside the range or understanding of -ordinary men am; women. The aim should always be to stimulate and quicken the inlerets and self-reliance of parents in matters pertaining to the home, eo that it may be regulated in a simple sensible, and responsible way. consistent with what n known at the present time as to the *undanier-:;! requirements of life. "The Society's work is essentially a heal ill mission. In regard to domestic hygiene, its trained nurses should take the places of untrained, unskilled neighbours, or relations in as tactful a. way as possible." Owing to the fact that the movement did not come into sudden existence, the Society being formed to carry on a pre-existing work which had proved successful, the members did not have to look about them for sources of reliable, consistent information on matters affecting tin health of women and children. They accepted in lieu of text-book the pioneering printed sheets, giving simple necessary directions and advice, which we had already published in some of the leading newspapers of the colony. These sheets soon gave place to a small book, "Feeding and Care of Baby," of which 20,000 copies have been issued during the five years, and of which a further enlarged edition of 20,000 copies iB now being published.