OUR BABIES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 61, 5 November 1912, Page 7

OUR BABIES.

(By Hygeia.) Published under the auspices of the Society for the Health of Women and Children. “It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.”

In one’s travels throughout the Dominion one is daily confronted with evidences of the limited ideas which still prevail in many quarters as to the broad scope and objects of the health mission which the Society has been carrying on for over five years. It is true that very few people non even pretend to think that we are primarily interested in the artificial feeding of babies—they understand our first objective is to ensure the health and fitness of the mother long before child birth, so that the baby may be born strong and healthy, and that it may bo nurtured for the full pterin in the natural way. Further, most peo pic realise that humanised milk merely means the milk of some mamal so modified as to make it approximate as nearly as possible to the milk designed bj the Creator for the young human be ing—the substitute being frankly recognised as necessarily inferior tr healthy human milk, and therefor* only to be recommended where natural suckling is unobtainable. But thu was not always so: only a few year? have passed since the Society was fre quently charged by prejudiced person; with encouraging women to feed then babies artificially. Having got pas. these first crude misconceptions wc find ourselves still faced with a ha/y idea lingering here and there that ii some mysterious way the society max be doing away with the self-reliance of the mothers and, metaphorically speaking, “spoon-feeding” them through the agency of the Plunkci Nurses. Nothing can be further from the truth. The primary rules of tin Society, the first injunctions given* t< its nurses, show the very reverse tc be the case.

Instructions to Plunk?! Nurses. The main function of the Society’c Nurses is to educate and help parents and others in a practical way in the hygiene of the home and nursery with a view to conserving the health of tinwhole family, while -directing special attention to the needs of mother and offspring. The Society is extremely anxious t( bring about a realisation of the, sufficingness in general of obedience te the simple, known laws of life and Nature to maintain the health of mother and child, and the inevitable Ndmcsh which follows sooner or later on am evasion of duty in this respect. .Above all, it desires to avoid the resorting to anything savouring of mystery, or suggestive of special knowledge 01 jjowers outside the range or understanding of ordinary men and women. The aim should always be to stimulate and quicken the interest and self-re-liance of parents in matters pertaining to the home, iso that it s may die regulated in, a sensible and- responsible way consistent with what is known at the present time as to the fundmental requirements of life. The -Society’s work is essentially a Health Mission. In regard to domestic hygiene, its trained nurses should take the place of untrained, unskilled neighbours or relations in as tactful a way as possible. They should endeavour to establish in the home an understanding and adoption of the simple principles illustrated in practice at the Karitane Hospital, arid inculcated in the Society’s books, pamphlets, “Our Babies” column, etc.,

A Patriotic Organisation. The Society is a mutual co-operative patriotic organisation for education in the essentials of motherhood and race culture, free to all, without a trace of patronage or charity.

Not only does the Society inculcate self-reliance and self-help, but it earnestly invites the women of all classes to avail themselves of its simple, practical teaching of the health and fitness of-themselves and their families, but for the sake of the whole rising generation and the future of our race. There is no greater mistake than to suppose that the Society exists for the less capable and less competent stocks of the community or for the sake of the submerged. We want to bring about a. higher standard of health and fitness in all classes. This is clearly shown in the following extract from the remarks made by Dr. Truby King, the General President of the Society, when questioned on this point recently by a reporter in Invercargill. “Is it a fact,” he was asked, “that the movement is intended specifically to reach the classes whose position makes it unlikely that they are in possession of the requisite knowledge in the protection of infant life?” “No,” said Dr. King. “The question really conveys a not uncommon misconception as to the essential aim; of the society. What we have to recognise first and foremost is, as a leading American physician said, that there is as much need for education and training in matters pertaining to the health of the community and the rising generation in particular among the educated and well-to-do as among the poor and ignorant. The Society for the Health of Women and Children was established in the beginning, and has been maintained throughout as a mutual aid organisation, the members of which have frankly realised that they had practically as much to learn themselves as they had to convoy to others. They have loftno stone unturned in their efforts to perfect their knowledge from all sources and to spread this throughout the community by every practicable means, availing themselves of speciallytrained nurses, books, pamphlbts, etc.; and above all the generous aid which has been accorded to them from start to finish by the press. However, it

is not generally realised to how great an extent the spread and advance of this movement has been duo to the direct and indirect personal influence of the teaching of members of the strong local committees, which have carried on the work of the society. Essentially the mission is conducted on broad educational lines—an educa.tioual health mission to all classes alike. It is sometimes asked why no charge is made for the services of the Plunkct Nurses, but the fact is wo look at the whole scheme from an educational point of view. All the society teaches is desires the whole community to avail itself of as widely as possible—because the knowledge it gives is of a necessary character—indeed, to a large extent, :t 13 of a character which should be conveyed to girls on the verge of womanhood, and it may come to be conveyed to a considerable extent in the not distant future in the latter stages of school life. Perhaps this is hoping for rather too much, but in any case it would be unwise to attempt to make a charge for the acquisition of knowledge which the recipients have for the most part scarcely recognised that they needed at first, but which we know is of the utmost importance to mother and child and to the community. Indeed, the movement must be const Fred a patriotic one, since any improvement in the health and vitality of the rising generation will be a matter of prime importance to the safety and defence of the country, quite apart from its importance to the community in all other respects.”