MOTHERCRAFT TRAINING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18174, 21 August 1922, Page 8

MOTHERCRAFT TRAINING.

WORK IN ENGLAND. THE "TRUBY KING SPIRIT." [rXtOM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] LONDON. July 7. At tho annual meeting of the Mothercraft Training Socicty, H.iR.H. Princess Christian presided'. Dr.. R. C. Jewesbury, the hon. medical director, seconded the resolution. Their object, he said, was to provide an oppor- j tunity of education to all those who were interested in what was known as mothercraft education for the nurse, for the doctors, and for the mother herself. Secondly the work was to give the children the best chance of a. healthy life. By the methods the society taught they maintained that the children were being properly fed and were placed in the best position to start their lives and to resist, disease. Since Dr. Truby King started tho society, nearly four years ago, they had made satisfactory progress, and, as proof oil that, their out-patients for the period covered by the report had numbered 3523, and of these 609 had been new cases. The average monthly outpatient attendance had been 207, aa against 101 for the previous year. In order to cater for the increase of outpatients, they had had to set apart three days in the week instead\of two. ' Hie society had particularly developed its training schoel for the nurses, and the waiting list of nurses anxious to train was a very long one. Those who had experience in getting nurses for sick chil- i dren-~nurses with special knowledgewould appreciate the work this training school was doing. It was exceedingly difficult in private cases, where babies were ill, To get nurses with spccial knowledge. The ordinary trained nurse was practically useless. Students who had taken the whole course numbered. 112, and of these 22 had been certificated nurses, and 11 had been fully-trained midwives. The methods which Dr. Truby King laid down bad been very rigidly adhered to. They had not attempted to chunge anything in that way. There was almost unlimited scope in tho work whidh the sooicty was doing. They were very glad • the' Ministry of Health had made their grant, but they were coming to a critical period, and'they might find it difficult to obtain satisfactory premises ■ unlosS the funds were forthcoming. Dr. J. S. Fairburn, consulting physician, referred ,to Dr. Truby Kings methods. Or. Truby King, he said, had collected all that was best from the Continent and elsewhere. The basis df his system was to woifk on the most natural "lines —that was. breast feeding. When that was impossible, he had provided a substitute which was the nearest possible to natural feeding. He was glad to 'say that this principle had lived! as the spirit of the Mothercraft Training Society. It, was Dr. Truby King who inspired all the. great woi£ which was done by the society. < =2==== : j