INSTRUCTION IN MIDWIFERY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20960, 25 February 1930, Page 8

INSTRUCTION IN MIDWIFERY.

Midwifery has long been, to repeat the phrase employed by Sir Carrick Robertson in a speech recently delivered at Auckland, the Cinderella of the New Zealand Medical School. In its direct effects upon the welfare of tho mother and the child at the tune of childbirth adequate knowledge of the science of obstetrics is of vital importance, yet of the various branches of medicine midwifery has been constantly neglected. The advanced countries of the world are now concentrating attention upon the

subject of instruction in obstetrics and diseases of -women, and it is in order that the Dominion may keep abreast 'of the times that the New Zealand Obstetrical Society has launched its appeal for funds sufficient, with ' a Government subsidy, to endow a chair of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the University of Otago. Those who attended the public meeting which was held in the Council Chambers yesterday to inaugurate the campaign in Otago could not fail to be impressed with the earnestness and sincerity of the speakers, Dr Doris Gordon and Sir Lindo Ferguson, who urged that although there is another important appeal before the public, and the monetary position in the Dominion is v uncertain, the vital influence that proper training in obstetrics exerts upon the welfare of. the race cannot be disregarded. The gracious message of her Majesty the Queen expressing interest in the appeal should also serve to commend it to the public as worthy of support. Thanks to the invaluable work of the Plunket Society, New Zealand has the lowest infantile death rate in the world, but the maternal mortality rate in this country of 4.75 per 1000 compares unfavourably with that of Denmark. While most of the money which has been subscribed for the University of Otago has in the past been provided by the public-spirited people of this provincial district the present appeal has a unique interest in that it is being made throughout New Zealand, and already there has been in the north a generous response by people who, as Dr Gordon pointed out, all desire a fully-equipped maternity hospital in their own centres but recognise that Dunedin has prior claims in view of the location of the Medical School here. The Medical School is a source of pride to residents in this city, and competent visitors to New Zealand have expressed their surprise at the existence in this community of an institution so well equipped as it is, yet for several years it- has fallen below the requisite standard of efficiency in midwifery \ e t by the General Medical Council of Great Britain, and it is only by the provision of improved facilities for instruction in this subject that this deficiency can be remedied. The Government has granted £50,000 for the establishment of an up-to-date midwifery hospital in connection with the medical school, and in order that the best use may be made of this institution it is necessary that the services of a professor fully qualified to instruct students in obstetrics and gynascology shall be obtained; For the staffing of the department the £25,000, for which an appeal is being made, is required, and it may be anticipated that the £SOOO which has been asked of the Otago provincial district as its contribution will be readily forthcoming.