MATERNAL MORTALITY

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12249, 22 September 1925, Page 7

MATERNAL MORTALITY

,’ CAMPAIGN TO REDUCE IT CLINICS TO OPEN SHORTLY. (By Telegraph—Special to ‘‘Times.”) AUCKLAND, September 21. An important step in the camDaifjn to reduce the maternal mortality in New Zealand will shortly be taken by the Department of Health, which is establishing ante-natal clinics in the four centres or the Dominion. In Auckland the clinics will be run in connection with St. Helens Hospital, St. John Ambulance Association, St. Mary’s Home, Otahuhu, and the Salvation Army Maternity Homo. Arrangements have been almost completed, and the date of the opening of the clinics will he announced shortly. The clinict, which will be. free, will bo under medical supervision, and staffed by nurses who have had special training in tho capacity of assistant to the Jiaticnts’ medical attendant and under lis instructions. She will send a duplicate of each patient’s clinical history record to the practitioner, and will re* j>ort to him any condition sufficiently important to require medical attention, working always under his directions. AH expectant mothers will be encouraged to attend the clinics regularly, and in this way systematic supervision will he carried out during the entire ante-natal period. Privacy will he duly considered as one of the principal factors in encouraging a patient to attend. In order to secure regular attendance and privacy, every patient will be given an appointment card on which is written tho dnv and hour on which she is to attend, and the purpose of the supervision and examination explained. Pamphlets giving advice upon matters of diet, clothing, and exercises and upon questions of special.importance to the expectant mother aro issued free of charge by the Health Department. The importance of the ante-natal vipervi.sion has been emphasised by the Minister for Health in connection with the inst.itulio nof the campaign to reduce tho rate of maternal mortality, and the need for instruction, education, and supervision during the critical period of pregnancy has been made sufficiently obvious bv the regrettably high rate of maternal mortality recorded in Sow Zealand in recent years. Ante-natal work has now been given recognition as a matter of national importance. Tt provides for the expectant mother and for her child a safeguard against errors that in the past have cofct the Slate many a valuable liic.