MATERNAL WELFARE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 13747, 28 June 1924, Page 13

MATERNAL WELFARE.

LADY DOCTOR'S CRITICISM.

REPLY BY DR. TRUBY KING

NO "SPARTAN METHODS."

THE USE OF ANAESTHETICS,

A-reply has been made by Dr. Truby King, director of child welfare, to certain statements regarding the maternal welfare campaign made in a letter to the press by " a medical practitioner who is also a mother." As the writer's criticism of the Government maternity hospitals has been answered bv the Minister for Health, Dr. King confines his _ remarks to her interpretation of the views expressed by speakers at the recent meeting in Palmerston North. Dr. King says that there is not a particle of justification for the lady doctor's suggestion that speakers at that meeting advocated "Spartan methods" of childbirth or that the Minister for Health advocated that "the patient shall be left unaided in labour as long as three days. Only when God, Nature, and the midwife fail shall the doctor be summoned." Undue Interference. " This conveys absolutely the reverse" of the impression left by the Minister on his audience at Palmerston, and the reverse of what is contained in the very newspaper report from which his detractor appears to be quoting," says Dr. King. " What the Minister really said" was in entire accord with the pronouncements of the leading authorities of the* day whsn laying down the proper course to pursue in justice and mercy to mother and child. The following is taken verbatim from Dr. Pomare's address as reported in the newspaper: ' There is too much resorting to the use of instruments, both legally and illegally. ..1 want the medical profession to understand that there is a great responsibility resting upon Medical men must not allow themselves to bo influenced against their better judgment to expedite the processes of Nature. It is undue interference, I consider, which has a great deal to do with the mischief done. It will be a good day for the mothers of New Zealand when they realise that the doctor is only necessary to see that' things go on all right. If it is left to the midwife, God and Nature will do the rest. In Denmark, where the work is performed by midwives, doctors being called in only for abnormal cases, the rate of maternal mortality is the lowest in the world.' Only a Pew Abnormal Oases. "As regards the need to limit the use of forceps, this accords with the report of the special committee of the Board of Health set up three years ago to con sider and report on the deaths of mothers in connection with child-birth. Further, what Sir Maui Pomare said in this connection coincided with very important and significant pronouncements made by Dr. Jellett (the leading authority on the subject, not only in New Zealand, but also in Australia), when giving evidence before the board. Ho said that it would be a good thing if the public could be brought to understand that the most essential function of the obstetrician in connection with child-birth was to ascertain whether the case was normal or abnormal —in other words to form a diagnosis. If he found matters normal, as he would on the average in at least 95 per cent, of cases, it.was better and safer for the busy practitioner not to remain, but to leave matters in the hands of the midwife, so that there might be no undue pressure brought to bear by the patient or her friends to induce the doctor to hasten matters, and no excuse or temptation for him to do so in order that he might overtake his other duties. " The contention . of the lady doctor that the speakers at Palmerston recommended that women should be denied relief ■'■ of pain by anaesthetics .. is utterly untrue. Only.one of the five doctors who spoke at the meeting even mentioned anaesthetics one way or the other, viz., Dr. Paget, and his proposal was actually to extend the power of affording relief by chloroform, where considered necessary, to midwives or maternity nurses, in the absence of a doctor. Seeing that many mothers, especially in the back blocks, are beyond the reach of doctors, it is obviously humane and reasonable to allow properly-trained nurses to relieve undue pain in an emergency."