OBSTETRICAL RESEARCH

Otago Witness, Issue 3830, 9 August 1927, Page 36

OBSTETRICAL RESEARCH

The following appeared in our second edition of last week.

COMPREHENSIVE DATA COLLECTED. DOMINION SOCIETY FORMED. “The Obstetrical Society of the New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association is now firmly established throughout the Dominion, and the work which this society is expected to do has commenced in earnest. The circularisation of the profession was followed by encouraging results as far as membership is concerned, but we cannot say with any degree of definiteness what has yet been accomplished as the first quarter of the society's operations was only concluded at the end of June. Therefore, the correlation of - data secured has not yet been completed. But although we are making excellent progress, there are a lot of doctors who have not yet actively associated themselves with the work. We hope to interest these men in the society in the very near future.”

Thus spoke the Dunedin secretary of the society last week when our representative as]j.ed what had been done as a izsult of the movement in the matter of obstetrical research which had its birth at ihe Medical Congress held in Dunedin in February. The interest aroused at that time has not been allowed to lapse for want of some definite programme of action. Among the many scourges taking a heavy annual toll of the world’s population is puerperal mortality, and the high incidence of this trouble in Englishspeaking countries has of recent years led the medical profession. to institute thorough and exhaustive investigations into its actual extent and causation. Commissions have been set un and have done valuable work in Great Britain and Australia, and as a result of the example and achievement of these countries the medical profession in New Zealand determined that an obstetrical society should be formed in New Zealand. The profession in the Dominion has been greatlv concerned over the incidence of maternal mortality in this country, and it was with the idea of launching a crusade against a trouble that is costing the country many lives that the society was formed in February last. The society as at present constituted is affiliated to the New Zealand branch oi the British Medical Association, and all members of that body are eligible for membership in the society. . The first nnnual meeting will be held in Hamilton in March of next year, when the conference of the British Medical Association will be held in that town. By that time the machinery of the society will be in full running order, and some definite results should be reported. Special stress is laid on the importance of ante-natal care and treatment, and an endeavour is to be made, as a result of the data collected from members, to standardise methods of treatment and technique in order to arrive at the best results. Hitherto the Public Health Department has been unable to collect reliable statistics of maternity work, with the result that research has been hampered. The institution of a society of this nature has provided an opportunity for the collection of a comprehensive volume of statistics and figures from a great many widely-scattered private practitioners. The data thus secured will be of the utmost benefit to the profession and the department in their endeavours to raise the standard of public health.

Every member of the society is provided with an elaborately-compiled clinical record with carbon copy duplicates which serve the dual purpose of affording practitioners a permanent record of their own cases and of supplying the society with the data necessary for the proper study of obstetrical problems in New Zealand. The type of record adopted has been made as simple as possible to suit the majority, but to the layman the book looks to be a puzzling complication of unfamiliar terms. The compiling of the'records required allow for only the minimum of supervision and treatment, and should not entail more than five minutes’ work for the busy practitioner. These case records are returned to the society’s headquarters at three-monthly intervals. The society had adopted its own -pamphlets of antenatal advice, and these are supplied to members, who are expected to pass copies on Jo patients at the time of engagement. The general adoption of this pamphlet should make good work in this respect easier, and should also prove an aid to to the work of the society generally. The inaugural work has now been accomplished, and it requires only a few months to allow the research work to commence in real earnest. The society aims at mutual co-operation and help, and hopes that all members of the British Medical Association actively engaged in midwifery will join up and assist in the effort to improve the conditions under which obstetrical work is conducted in New Zealand. The officers of the society for the present year are as follows: —Patron, Dr F. Riley (Dunedin) ; president, Dr Irving (Christchurch) ; vice-president. Dr Leahy (Hawke’s Bay) ; secretary and treasurer (joint officers), Drs D. C- Gordon and A. J. Gordon (Stratford) ; provisional executive committee, Drs Jamieson and Spencer (Auckland), Johnston (Hawke’s Bay), D. C. Gordon (Taranaki), T. F. Corkill (Wellington), Washbourne (Nelson), Patterson (South Canterbury), Russell Ritchie (Otago), and Watson (Southland). The waste of maternal and infant life and the impairment of the health of mothers and babies have engaged the sericus attention of hygienists for a long time, and it. is high time a community campaign against disease and avoidable death was launched. The. ground to be covered is

very extensive, and the significance of the work must be apparent to ail.