MAORI MATERNITY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19679, 11 July 1938, Page 5

MAORI MATERNITY

RISKS TWICE AS GREAT COMPARISON WITH PAKEITA (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. Special attention to Maori maternity is recommended by the committee of inquiry into the maternity services. “The committee had the opportunity of discussing the special problems of Maori maternity attendance with those most closely associated with this work in the various parts of the Dominion,” the report stated. “A very prevalent idea that confinement amongst native women is safe and easy is not borne out by the facts; on the contrary, the risks of maternity amongst the Maori women at present are twice as great as amongst white women, and the incidence of sepsis is particularly high. “The various factors involved have been considered, and the committee is of the opinion that the unsatisfactory position of the Maoris is due partly to an inability bn the part of the native attendants; to deal with urgent complications. such as haemorrhage, but mainly to unhygienic living conditions and a departure from the simpler but more wholesome diet of the past leading to dental, throat, skin and general infections which are a menace to safe maternity. The committee considers that much good could be done by an augmented staff of district nurses to natives giving ante-natal supervision to the Maori women in their homes (in co-operation with the hospital clinics). “Through the same agency general hygienic instruction could be given to all those living in the native settlements. "The urgent need for improving the housing conditions in many of these settlements is fully recognised by those in touch with Maori life: the committee can only emphasise it. “The committee does not believe 'that the position can be met by an attempt to introduce European methods of confinement attendance into the Maori homes, but strongly recommends the provision of hospital accommodation for Maori women in the public maternity hospitals in all districts where Maoris are resident. “The committee does not favour special Maori hospitals, but agrees that the establishment of separate wards is desirable.”