MATERNAL MORTALITY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19200, 17 June 1924, Page 9

MATERNAL MORTALITY.

BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. CRITICISM OF RECENT REPORTS. O ALARMING STATEMENTS DEPRECATED. (Pee United Beess Association.) WELLINGTON, June 16. At the meeting of the British Medical Association, delegates from all parts of the dominion being present, the report recently published in the press on the subject of maternal mortality was discussed, and the following resolution was adopted unanimously:— ■’That this association, while anxious, to assist in any practical way to reduce maternal mortality, views with grave disfavour the alarming and exaggerated statements made on the public platform anc published throughout New Zealand. T ' should be explained that of the 755 materna deaths during the last live years only 26". were attributable to septicaemia, and as tin deaths from abortion, however procured, ar not differentiated from the deaths at fula , ; term, a fair inference is that only a proportion of this number was due to puejfperal septicemia as generally understood. Moreover, the Bertillon system of registration, although at present widely recognised, is unsatisfactory as a means of comparison , between countries. While we cannot, unfortunately, gainsay our own figures, this council is firmly of the opinion from its knowledge of obstetric work, and of conditions in some of the other countries mentioned, that the relative position of New Zealand in respect to maternal mortality is in reality better than has been slated. Ibis council deprecates particularly such statement as those attributed to Dr Truhy King—viz., that ‘for every 100 women sacrificed 1000 were gravely damaged’ • that ‘of 30,000 children born every year 1000 were damaged by precipitate midwifery ; am., further, (as published in another report), that ‘of 30.000 children born annually in New Zealand 1000 were, damaged for life. i: i The council considers such statements absolutely contrary to fact and seriously ana ~ unnecessarily alarming to e?cpec;tant .j mothers.” j 1 THE NURSES DEFE2fDMJ^T‘| health department . CRITICISED. SOUTHLAND DOCTORS’ OPINIONS.* |:j (Fbom Oca Own Cokbeepondent.) - INVERCARGILL, June,. A ; The question of maternal morUlity-'jMqa,, ... referred to a number of medical practitioners yesterday by a, Southland iime» reporter. . .! _j. “I think,” said a prominent medico, “that there is a danger through the excessive zeal of the Health Department that nurses who have been trained in midwifery will not find it worth while to practise a o maternity nurses.. Already they una • advisable,' to conduct nursing homes confinement cases. The requirements .« the department as regards equipment ana staffing are so severe and involve so much ,= expense that there is no adequate return to a nurse for her financial outlay, nW i own personal work at all hours of Uie “!*£ * .t, and night and for the worry ,of managing a staff of servants and nurses. In addition, a reign of terror has been established by ( the Health Department. Should sepws occur in a private maternity home, toe Health Department, instead of _ ini- quietly, sympathetically, and helpfully, seems to go out of its way to add to too burdens of the already harassed nurse .by blaming her and in no way helping .her. If this policy should continue and extend to patients confined in their own holies it might bo expected that trained nurses will devote themselves to other branches .of work, and patients will have to seek the ‘services of the untrained who, because,of their want of training, do not come under the jurisdicticm of the Health Department. No law, present or future, will ever be able to prevent a woman, how-ever untrained, from attending another woman m her confinement if the patient so wishes. To penalise this would cause real hardships in emonrencios and in cases of poverty. “As to the occurrence of puerperal sepsis,” the. authority observed, “the. elaborate antesepsis recommended by the Health Department break/ down under the strain of actual happenings and by breeding false security is probably more dangerous Than the less elaborate, hut more practical, technique that can be adequately earned out. “I would welcome anything that would lessen the risk of puerperal sepsis, said the’ doctor in conclusion. “But that will come from the work of those actually engaged in the practice of midwifery and not trom the arbitrary and inquisitorial methods adopted by the bureaucratic department that is of necessity doing the actual WC “The thing.” commented a second doctor “that appeals to me after 25 years experience, is not that there are so many cases, but that there are so few in proportion, and considering what a woman , goes through that there are not more fatalities than there actually are.