MATERNAL MORTALITY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19204, 21 June 1924, Page 7

MATERNAL MORTALITY.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir—l am a mother of a largo family, and have known what it is to .suffer naturally. I have also been helped by the most humane method when children have, boon bom. My homo is 12 miles Irorn our medical practitioner, and one cannot always have his attendance if lie is with another patient. There have been times when only his presence in the house was needed, but there were other times when 1 could not have pulled through' without his aid. The women of this district are most fortunate in having a practitioner who is sympathetic and who believes- in employing the humane method at the right time when it can give relief. Of course, a woman, especially one who has had a family, ought to know that the. practitioner cannot give relief until a certain stage has been raehod, but after that is past it is a great relief to be helped just a little. I went to a maternity home once, but since then I have never gone out of my own liorne, but have just taken the risk of getting our valued practitioner and a nurse that has boon a mother herself. Then, again, when the patient is in her own home she can get anything she wishes for, provided iho nurse agrees that it is suitable at tho time. I have lost two sisters in confinement, — cno with her second child and the other with her fifth. One suffered so much that relief came only in dentin Both the children wore born naturally. What did it cost.? There are women who cannot come through the ordeal without the help cf a practitioner. Then there are women who arc brave enough to say: “Well, it was vvorlh it all when you have tho love and affection of your children.” 'The rearing of children avid the moulding of their characters is the most beautiful work to which a woman can juff her nund, but. until wo get more humane, methods a.nd greater sympathy at a time when mothers risk their lives to bring other human beings to the world tho birth rate will be restricted. —I arn, etc., J [lst Another Mother. Aliller’s Flat, Juno 19.