MATERNAL MORTALITY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18584, 17 December 1923, Page 11

MATERNAL MORTALITY.

XUAJL.UXUIAJU IUV/XvXALLiXX J.« ' » Sir,-Much as I dislike discussing medical subjects in the daily newspapers, I think that, one should,,,dive deeper into the : subject of maternal mortality than those recent articles on the subject in the Hebald. Besides, the articles are not just or fair, as they insinuate that the New Zealand doctors and nurses are not as aseptic in their methods as the doctors elsewhere, whereas the general doctors here, as Dr. Hardie' Neil stated in a recent interview in'the Herald, are of a high standard, equal to any in the world. The articles are sTill more . unjust and unfair to the maternity hospitals, as all through they try to whitewash one, and black paint or tar all the others, whether very good, moderately good, or bad. At one time, I thought that child-bed fever not decreasing was probably due to the fact that nearly every doctor in the younger countries and colonies does surgical work. Dr. Neville Howse, V.C., Director-General of. the Australian Army Medical ° Services, told me a few years ago that when ; lie returned to the London Hospital Medical School for post-graduate work after a short time in Australia, the authorities persuaded him to address the hospital staff and the students on medical practice in Australia. When he mentioned the various items of a morning's work— a lodge patient at the surgery at 9, visit a scarlet fever at 9.30, operate on a suppurating appendix at 10, and attend a confinement st 11some members of the audience considered him a descend' ant of Ananias; but when one knows the conditions of practice in these young countries, one has to be prepared to do anything and everything. Sanger writes that under the most : favourable circumstances 15 per cent, of women with gonorrhoea develop puerperal Snfectiou, and others are of the opinion that the. gonococcus by its presence is a strong predisposing factor in . the production of streptococcic and other forms of sepsis, as th© resistance of the , parts is lessened or overcome by the gonococcus. . Berkeley and Bonney in their well-known book pay:—"The reproach of the continual : existence of a preventible disease lies, however, not only on the medical and nursing professions, but on the public at large. The insanitary houses and the utter want of ordinary cleanliness in the midst of which labours are every day taking place, •is. a scandal to the community. Education in the general advantage and safety of cleanliness is urgently required, and some means should bo sought to t-each young women its special importance m child-birth." The average woman chooses first tt maternity home where she is well fed, the nurse is the second consideration, and the doctor the last. It reminds one of the P. and 0. Shipping Company a old advertisement: " We carry a cow, a stewardess, and a doctor. I