INFANT MORTALITY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10963, 4 May 1907, Page 1 (Supplement)

INFANT MORTALITY.

- The question of 'infant mortality was mentioned by Mr Wood at a recent meeting of the Melbourne Board of Health, and Dr Norris, the chairman, intimated that he was quite prepared to draft a scheme* for dealing with the matter; provided' members were willing to accept as the basis of the solution of the problem the inseparability of the mother. .nd her child, and the fact that maternity was honorable. It was simply inhuman to separate the child from the mother until it was weaned. Statistics showed, too, that in' places where the two were kept together the mortality was at a surprisingly low rate." He was not prepared to suggest aiiy alternative as "a second best, as there was rio "second best" for this problem. With breast-fed infants tho mortality was weir below 100 out of 1000, -but m cases artificial feeding was resorted to it weritrp to nearly 300. They had to corisider,' not only the mortality; but the abnormal condition of ninny of those who survived. Some of them were physically and mentally dwarfed, and were m otlier respects imperfectly developed. They talked :ib out the problem of population, but until the community showed itself able to take care of the lives which come as a natural increase, it was a farce to talk about immigration. Dr Johnstone confirmed the chairman's view that the mother and child must not be separated m any scheme for the solution of the problem. He instanced a case which had come under his own observation of *a boy who hwas dwarfed as the. result of infantile ! treatment. Mr Wood, however, spoke of another case where the bad effects of artificial feeding had been overcome by extreme care," and Dr Norris suggested that life was too short to have to spend extreme care, when the necessity for it cOuld easily be avoided.