OUR BABIES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 632, 7 January 1914, Page 6

OUR BABIES.

Published 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.)

Shortly before I left New Zealand I was asked to write a Government pamphlet in harmony with the Society's recommendations, for issue by the Public Health Department to all mothers within a few day after child birth. Thirty thousand copies of this, in the form of an illustrated brochure of some 50 pages, entitled "Baby's First Month," costing boidb hundredß of pounds were struck off aB a first issue. It may be assumed that this will represent the annual output, as our births number some 25,000 a year, and expectant mothers will be encouraged to obtain and study the pamphlet rather than await ita receipt in ordinary course through the post after notification of birth. Presently we propose issuing a third pamphlet—logically the first of the series—especially addressed to expectant mothers. The second period, from birth to the end of the first month will be covered by "Baby's First Month," while the whole period of motherhood and infancy is dealt with brosdly and in detail in "Feeding and Care of Baby." SERIES OF CONSISTENT PUBLICATIONS.

For the sake ot continuity, and to prevent unnecessary repetition, these three publications will contain cross references from one to the other. Further, we are constantly referring patents to our fixed publications in dealing with questions answered in the weekly "Our Babies" newspaper column, which ia read almost universally by mothers throughout the Dominion.

I submit that a consistent aeries of authoritative pamphlets and newß paper articles on the above lines is much more effective and helpful than any single book covering the whole gruund could be. The young married woman or expectant mother wants to know what she ought to be doing to-day. to-morrow, or next week; not what she may p9ssibly have to be thinking about six monthß or a year or so hence. Thus, for the husband and the lying-in mother, there are a series of practical, economic, and other considerations, of vital importance, which apply almost solely to the month following childbirth, and these should be clearly set forth, unhampered by matters which have no relevancy whatever to this momentous epoch. We can beßt attain to clear thinking and sensible conduct and habits on the part of parents by concentrating attention on the mora urgent necessities of the moment, and of the time immediately ahead. Thiß we effect, partly through the agency of specially trained nu?ses and members of the Society, and partly by means of printed matter, lectures, etc.

Having once gained the interest of the mother, and won her confidence by manifest benefits accruing to herself and her child through obedience to the laws and needs o£ life having attained so much, experience has sbuwn us that parents, particularly men, will read and follow with absorbing inter est whatever one chooae to set before them. Indeed, interest in national bodily fitness and public health can he attained only through natural unselfish love of children and devotion to welfare. We find that the average man or woman appealed to. reasoned with, and trained in the right way will do anything for the health and we.llbeing of offspring, though they may be almost absolutely indifferent as to their own physical fitness, until they have been brought to see personal health in the light of a duty and trust —to see it as something which alway3, directly or indirectly, benefits others, and to see ill-health and disease, not only as a curse and blight to the family, but as something unworthy and utterly unpatriotic in its tendencies. As Stevens of Ladysmith said, the very children "ought to he taught that sickness is a badge of inferiority; that to be healthy is the prime condition of ell things desirable in life. Such an education might be trusted to breed heaithy bodies controlled by healthy minds." In other words, rear and train our children properly, and our grown men and women may be trusted to look after themselves. THE KARITANE-HARRIS HOSPITAL. Within a few month of the foundation of the Society, a hospital devoted to babies—the first in Australasia —was established. Starting with a few local babies, this institution now receive infants from all parts of the Dominion. When I left New Zealand there were 24 inmates under care—viz., 21 babies and ihree mothers.

In one sense, the healing of sick babies is the least important aspect of our hospital work. The Institution is a school for mothers, an ever-open object lesson, by means of which some thousands of visitors of all classes see and are taught personally every year the essetials, for healthy motherhood and babyhood while mothers who have any trouble with their babies are encouraged to become inmates for a week or 10 days so that they may be set on the right track. Most women on returning to their homes become centres of light and leading for their friends and neighbours; thus health reform spreads from home to home and f rom district to district.

Not only is the hospital held available for the teaching of actual mother a; but we encourage potential mothers —girla in their teens and expectant mothers—to attend weekly lessons and demonstrations, or to enter the institution for a short course of training. Further, a guild of 60 girls was organised some years ago, each

to spend an afternoon once a month handling and looking after the babies in the grounds, thus helping to provide the "mothering" element, apt to be lacking in institutions, and at the same time implanting and developing motherly tendencies and aptitudes in the girls themselves. Last, but not least, the KaritaneHarris Hospital is used by the university as the institution for the practical and clinical teaching of pediatrics to our medical stulents, and by Miss Boyes Smith, the Professor of Domestic Science, for teaching her students this asppect of their work