MATERNAL MORTALITY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19205, 23 June 1924, Page 8

MATERNAL MORTALITY.

TO THE EDITOB, .Bra,—With reference to Dr Siodeberg’fl letter in to-days issue, it is sufficient i’or her to know that th© .bt. Helens xxospitul to which I noierrou is not that in Duneain. Neither did I suggest that any of th© antenatal clinics were in charge of j'otmg girls. She has missed the point, wiiich fin© may grasp by reading my letter again, Now, for facts concerning the treatment X personally received at on© of these institution, and as an instance of the value of tlie ante-natal clinics : „ I was informed by the matron, that my child would be born any time befot)? the eiid of December, and eua booked a bed for me, and I left my clothe® at the home in accordance with the regulations. JVly child was not born until well past the middle of the following April! Incidentally, X approached the matron on more than one occasion when I was feeling downright ill and was sent away each time with the information that “1 would be much worse before I was better,” and that there v-ere ’scouos c.f other women in the same position. So much for ante-natal clinic advice I

Perhaps I was an isolated case. As I was at that time living iu the country, I was torced to board in town for four months. One would have thought that a woman handling scores of cases would have been better able to advise me. This was my own expenence, so that verification cf facts before appearing in print is unnecessary. Of another example of callousness in the treatment of a patient, the memory will live mmy mind always. Perhaps this was an molated case I°°! Bet us hope so, any-

Iho fact that seems to have escaped Dr Siedeberg s notice is that the'general trend of the letters appearing on this subject has been against the callous treatment meted out at these institutions, for in the whole of her long letter she has not once touched upon that point Instead of that, medical practice m reduced to terms of pounds, shillings, and pence, as your correspondent suggests that if a. £IOOO a year were granted to the mecucal officers of St. Helens institutions, instead of one-sixth of £IOOO an improvement in the system might be effected. 1 quite agree with Dr Siedeberg that when a woman marries, the Government and the male population howl at her if she contmues m her profession. .Nevertheless i think she will agree with me that those medical women who are married and are also mothers are the very practitioners to help the mothers of the future, and I am sure that the majority of mothers will endorse my statement; and furthermore, I do not think there are manv members of the male population of New Zealand who would object to the appointment of practitioner® of this class as superintendents of maternity hospitals These practitioners, and these only, know far better than a doctor who looks on, or else conducts the confinement by telephone. This latter is the very latest. A confinement by telephone! Taking Dr Siedeberg’s figures for the past 18 years, as correct, which they no doubt are, I was almost convinced that the system she upholds is infallible. Imagine my surpirse, therefore, on seeing in to-day’s paper that the St. Helens Hospital in Invercargill has had to be closed owing to the occurrence of a case of puerperal sepsis. I have no desire to enter into a heated controversy with Dr Siedeberg on the subject. Her opinions do not carry as much weight with me aa those of a “Medical Practitioner who is also a Mother.” The statements made by me are true, and facts are stubborn things and cannot be explained away.—l am, etc., Just a Motheb. Wingatui, June 20.