MATERNAL MORTALITY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 27 March 1922, Page 3

MATERNAL MORTALITY

The British Medicad Journal devotes more than a column article, to the findings of the special committee in New Zealand which investigated facts concerning mortality due-' to child-birth and disease of pregnancy. Commenting on the reference to the unsuitability of many private houses 'for confinements, the journal says:— "If we are to reduce our maternal mortality it is not enough to insist upon the proper training of medical students and nurses; we must.educate the people to a comprehension of the necessity for tho provision of suitable conditions for confinements. There is no gainsaying that every confinement partakes of the essential characters of a surgical operation. Yet practitioners are expected to confine women' in conditions in which they would naturally hesitate to ‘operate,’ and the illusory immunity with which they appear to do so tends inevitably to produce a contempt, of the risks.” The request for the co-operation of the profession in preventing excessive use of instruments, the Medical Journal characterises as- a most vital recommendation. ’Tutting aside for the moment the inestimable value of instruments properly used in the presence of proper indications, there can he no doubt that thousands of labours are every year conducted instnunentally with detrimental results, which would 'terminate more favourably without such interference.” Lastly, the committee lays stress on the importance of ante-natal clinics, and in private practice "the serious importance of ante-natal examination.” “With this we entirely agree. It is indeed hut part, and parcel of the proper modern conduct of obstetric, practice, and while antenatal clinics are a comparatively recent development, it is 1 a reproach to the profession that adequate antenatal examination in private practice, should require any stressing.”