A BABY HOSPITAL FOR GISBORNE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14363, 31 July 1917, Page 4

A BABY HOSPITAL FOR GISBORNE.

(Contributed.)

I The Plunket Society m the course of j Its work has realised for some consider- j table time -the necessity for. a baby hos- j 'pi till. TRncli Plunket 'nurse m turn has J found hhi«x i« work crippled, because there is no such institution, and the society j | welcomes the haby^savins campaign ; I whicii is to take- place on August 31st. ! as a means of raising- 'funds for this pur- I pose. A baby hospital, it. must be under- ] stood, is not merely an institution for J healing- sick babies.* It does undertake ; this work, but a work that is recognised j as equally important is that it should i act ns a -teaching school for mothers m I all that belongs to infant hygiene. In a small way this work was begun here years ago by the. late - Mrs. Harrold. Mrs. llarrold had been a Plunket nurse before her marriage, and when she came to Gisborne she continued her teaching here. When she found a baby not thriving, she frequently took the baby into her own home, and by giving it proper food and lobking to its general surroundings, she nursed it back to health. She encouraged the mother to visit the baby during the time, and taught all sho could by the practical example of the baby's daily improvement, and by explaining the means by which this was obtained. When the. mother could be spared from home, Mrs. Harrold invited her to stay with the baby; and so, under skilled supervision, the mother learned the best way of caring for her baby. It is m quite a modest way therefore that the society would be prepared to begin. The society would be wel} content to open m a suitable cottage at first With a Plunket nurse m charge. Often a baby could get a good start m life if it could be sent under expert care for two or three weeks. But it is a very difficult thing for a mother once her baby has fallen into ill-health to get it healthy' again. Moreover, the mother herself is! oftPii too overworked and too tired toi understand and put m practice the goodj advice the nurse or doctor is giving her. She has had bad . nights ' with a restless ' baby, she has all her housework and the : care of several other small children on her shoulders, and when she • takes the i new baby to the doctor or nurse for advice, her brain is too weary to take m. what is said to her. If she could hand! over her baby to expert, care for twoor three weeks while she got a good sleep at night, and the baby was brought back td health and good habits, she would then be fit to understand what the nurse is trying to explain to her. If she visited the baby hospital and saw the practical proof of the teaching on her own and other babies, she would be full of courage for the new start. It ls for those tired mothers and for the young mothers with their first babies that such an institution makes such an appeal to all of us mothers who have been through ! this experience. We know, however in- ! telligent we may look to doctor and nurse, there is a fog over our brains that will not let. us understand instructions. The Plunket ' nurse will often say - that the fathers seem more intelligent and interested than the mothers m principles of infant, hygiene- but she will add: "Of course, they are the lookers-on at the game, and can see the mistakes that are made, and can grasp the remedies suggested. They have not been worried by the baby and other children, all day." Such an institution would set a standard m every town of the best way of bringing np a baby, and the effects of their teaching and the 'actual ltves they saved would lower infant mortality tremendously. No better memorial could be found for the men who have laid down their lives m the war than efforts to make the babies healthy and wholesome, citizens. A PLUNKET MOTHER.