BANNED BABES.

NZ Truth, Issue 72, 8 December 1906, Page 5

BANNED BABES.

_ ♦ WRETCHED WAILING WOMEN. Wellington's Welcome to "The Woman Who Did." A Peep at Thompson-street Maternity Home. Condition of Things a Disgrace to Civilisation. Girl-mothers' Awful, Unassuaged, Agonies. Last Sunday was the day set apart for yet another appeal to the philanthropic public of Wellington for subscriptions t6 the funds of the charitable institutions of the town. That the monetary results of that appeal v.as satisfactory goes without 'saying, for the Empire City yields pride of place to none m responding wholeheartedly for sweet Charity's sake, of whatever nature it may be. An appeal such as last Sunday's is made, the Wellingtonian comes up smiling, pans out the largest coin of the return he can afford, and goes away, happy m the thought that he has done what was required of him. So far as the average man knows — so far as he can know under present con-ditionsr-those occasional appeals to his pocket and to other imen's pockets fill the bill exactly and the medical institution of the city are thereby placed m positions of comparative affluence. A visit to the Hospital, perchance to see a sick friend, is inclined to strengthen this comfortable feeling that all is well, for that institution bears an air of modest luxury that is fully m keeping with the wealthy community m which it stands. But, sad to say, the General Hospital is by no means the only institution for alleviating sickness and distress m our midst. There are others, many of them little heard of, but all doing their own good work. Yet, strange though it may seem, m some of these smaller institutions the merciful missions for which they came into being arc hampered for lack of the very funds which the man m the street, m his ignorance of the true facts, imagines he provides m adequate quantity. One such institution has been brought to light within the last few days, and from inquiries "Truth" has made it is able to putMsh some facts which provide thougLt for all, and an opening for good work for » the benevolently disposed. In Thompson-strof 0 stands the Maternity Home. **.t is an admirable institution m its way, for there go THOSE WEAK SISTERS who have erred, to give birth to the banned babes whose fate it is to enter this world with the taint of ille^itemacy upon their ' innocent beads. ' The mere fact of the existence of such an institution is cheering to the sympathetic heart and knowledge of its being is, very unfortunately, enough for most people. The very nature of the Ma-temity Home seems to cloak it with a veil of obscurity which it has apparently been no one's business to draw aside. "Truth," from its inquiries, proposes to show the true state of things extant to-day at the Thomp-son-street Maternity Home and leave its readers to judge for themselves whether such a state of things should be or whether some radical alteration is needed. The Home is carried on by a matron and staff, and carried on as admirably as circumstances will permit. The place is over-filled from the first day <rf the year to the lasfr— a never-ending flow of frail femininity. In consequence, the patients— those of them \^foo can by any stretch be received— are crowded together m the most horrible manner conceivable. On the occasion of a recent visit it was stated that no less than -four women were sleeping on mattresses placed on the landing. II! one of these women (or girls, as is too often the case) is taken m labor she is fetched into the ward, aaid another poor wretch, still awaiting her time of travail, has, perforce, to give up her bed inside and take the vacant bed on the landing. It seems HORRIBLE, BESTIAL ALMOST, that such a state of affairs can be allowed to co on, but so it is. The question may be pertinently asked the governing body of the Maternity Home what 'it has done to endeavor to alter this terrible condition ofthings. Has it taken an always •generous public , into its confidence, shown the difficulties under which the Homers carried on. and appealed for funds to enable further additions to be made to the building ? A crying scandal like this should not be hushed up but should be published, abroad. Visitors to the Home are not allowed, but to a lady who called recently to fjee the Matron that lady confided seme blood-curdling details. She explained that the doctor who attended the patients was "honorary" and that she, therefore, dared not call him until the last moment. Consequently the place is oftentimes (although the matron did not say as much) a veritable inferno. Women and girls suffering the anguish of child-labor, moaning and SHRIEKING IN HARROWING FASHION. The Matron related how one girl was taken m labor and another (only sixteen years of age, and not expecting her confinement for another two or three weeks V was brought to bed through the first one's cries of agony. No sedative was ever given, said the Matron. Apparently this institution isiconducted on the strictest lines of economy, the few shillings necessary to appease the pangs of the wretched mother-to-be being of more account with the authorities than the- terrors of a hard travail. Will they not turn their attention to this phase of the conduct of the Thompson-street house of woe unspeakable that reform may follow. The Matron also stated that she had one girl with her, awaiting THE ORDEAL OF CHILDBIRTH, who was exactly 13 years and six months old ! We presume this poor betrayed mite, frail m mind ami body," had to suffer the tortures of Hell to save the expense of merciful chloroform. Such is the condition of thines to- j day at. the Thompson-street Mater-; nity Home. No reflection is oast on I

the Matron and her staff, believing they do ail m their power for the stream of suffering womanhood under their charge. But it behoves the managine body to bestir itself to brine- about a better sta,te of affairs at the Home. If ,more funds are , needed to enlarge the place the public of Wellington will respond readily. That a salaried medical man should be appointed no one who has read the above harrowing details . can doubt for one moment. A woman m child, whether she be married or single, is a sacred charge'; and the suggestion that any kind of treatment will do for the erring one who has defied the church m her expression of love, is repugnant. The hardening effect that such treatment as is meted out to the girl who has strayed from the path of virtue, at the Thompson-street Home, can only be imagined, and the'management, if it possesseth a heart at all, will set x about mending matters right away. And, m face of such horrors m the very places Christ would have prayed; and pleaded for, a damnable, rocky, faced, flinty-hearted Scot like a million times accursed Carnegie, yields to loafing New Zealand villages' howls for a gift library and loses his chance of eternal salvation —slender as it is.