SAFE MOTHERHOOD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19469, 27 October 1926, Page 16

SAFE MOTHERHOOD.

NEED FOR CARE AND HELP. THE ANTE-NATAL CLINICS. THE ADVICE OF EXPERTS. The subject of ante-natal care, to which much space was devoted in the last annual report of the Department of Health, was discussed at length last evening by Dr. Hilda Northcroft and Sir Truby King, in addressee to the Child Welfare Conference. Dr. Northcroft. very strongly emphasised the need for early measures, continued with regularity up until the birth of the child. Among primitive peoples, she pointed out, instinct and religious belief combined to make the expectant mother protect herself from the risks she was likely. to encounter. To-day these influences were not so potent. Astonishingly little was done to prepare young girls for their future responsibility. Many people, she said, seemed content to trust to mother-love and commonsense, aided by the advice to be found in a " Mother's Guide," or some other archaic work. It should be realised that the expectant mother's condition should be one of health, but that the margin between health and illness was for her a narrow one. « Early advice was of the utmost importance, and for lack of it many infant lives had been lost. All possible information should be gained about the woman's medical history, mode of life ind general health. The devastation that a decayed tooth, for example, might cause was almost incredible. She should pay monthly visits to a doctor or qualified nurse, and all departures from the normal should be noted. There was a double advantage in this, since it helped to remove her doubts and fears, which allowed to remain might have a very detrimental effect. The Country Mother. Much was being done in New Zealand cities by the ante natal clinics, said Dr. Northcroft, and it was hoped to extend the work to women in the country. One plan was to make use of the country school nurses and to send monthly letters of advice and encouragement to the expectant mothers. It. was by pre-natal care that postnatal welfare could be best assured. Indeed, care should begin with safeguarding the infancy and adolescence of the girls who were to be the mothers of tomorrow. For example, rickets, a disease of malnutrition, brought grave dangers in after years to a mother who had suffered from it, and also to her child. The mentally-defective mother presented an exceedingly difficult problem. Beyond doubt it was better that such women should be wisely prevented from ever having childreu, but in such an event ttrcy must receive the best care that their mentality might allow. She was very sorry that the excellent reports of the commissions on venereal diseases and mental deficiency had been carefully filed away in Wellington, and that their contents were not better known to the public. Sir Truby King, dealing with the matter in a subsequent speech, sa.id the utter unpreparedness of many presentday women for motherhood was in very strong contrast with what prevailed among more primitive people. 'Maori women, for example, met with very little trouble and approached childbirth without anxiety. It was most important that, the expectant "mother should be reassured and given confidence. It. was too commonly believed, on the authority of scripture, that it, was natural and even right that a woman should suffer much pain. She should be taught, on the contrary, that there need be only a modicum of pain, and that by preparation it could bo reduced to a minimum. Teaching Yoang Girls. Tie number of expectant mothers in New Zealand receiving regular advice was still only a fraction of the whole. About 1200 infants died yearly, and 800 of that number died within the first month of life, many of them within the first week. He did not think that the very low death-rate of infants over one-month could be further reduced, but a considerable reduction in the rate under that age was still possiblo by more antenatal care and other means. When in France he had visited one of a. number of institutions established by the Government, at which all young girls were required to spend ten days, during which each girl was given entire charge of a. healthy baby. An experiment on these lines had been made at Dunedin in the early days of the Plunket movement, but had not succeeded because ailing babies had been used. He still hoped some day to have a training institution of this kind attached to every Karitane home, with the proviso that only healthy, normal babies should be kept there. Regarding the reports of the commissions which Dr. Northcroft had mentioned, Sir Truby King said that hasty action could not be taken on either matter. His assistant and successor in the Mental Hospitals Department, Dr. T. G. Gray, was now on a tour of Europe and America, gathering all possible information. about the treatment of mental defectives, and it would not bo wise to attempt anything new in that, field until he bad returned and made his report. After Sir Truby King's address, the conference carried a motion expressing the. opinion that the ante-natal clinics should be more liberally staffed, and that each should have its own medical officer.