OUR BABIES.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 14065, 24 November 1909, Page 2

OUR BABIES.

(By Hygeia.)

The following excellent resume of the work of the Dunedin Branch of the Society was given recently by Mrs J H Hosking—the hrst local President and now the Hon. Treasurer. The occasion was the meeting of the Dunedin Hospital Saturday Association, find we derive our report from what appeared in the local papers, supplemented by a few corrections and additions which the speaker has kindiy supplied. KARITANE BAY HOSPITAL.

I have been asked to tell this meeting something about the work being done by the Society for the Health of Women and Children, chiefly as regards the Karitane Home. As you know —or perhaps you do not know — the institution was* originally opened two and a-lialf years ago as a Licensed Home as a protest against the method of inspection existing for licensed homes in Dunedin, of which there were between 50 and GO. The babies in these ■Homes" were nearly all illegitimate children, and in consequence were considered to bo inferior to tho children of married people-—that is, deserving of less care. Taking the most forlorn, miserable, and wasted specimens to be found in Dunedin, we set out to prove that even these children were not necessarily foredoomed to death or misery—that for the most part, if given proper caro and attention, they were almost as capable of growing up into healthy men and women as the more fortunate children of married parents, and that it was in the interest or the State that this should be the case. Treated as they were, a percentage might die from ignorance or neglect on the part of those looking after them, hut a much larger percentage would grow up deficient in vitality and otherwise unfit to tight tho battle of fife, and would soon become a charge on tne ."state, inis is stating the case from tne purely economic side, ana leaving common humanity out of the question. IME OKIGLN'Au HO.UE.

We ran this Home for eight or nine months with the most conspicuous success. The health of the children was excellent —so much so that we found our reputation lor cariug for those children so well was bringing us nothing but sick babies, and some very ill indeed, and that our Home was gradually coming to be regarded as a hospital. V> e found it a necessity to have a trained nurse as matron, there being very little mere "mothering" to do, but a great deal of real sick nursing. V\ hen, the new Infant Life Protection Act came into force in January, 1907, the reason for our existence as a .Licensed Home ceased to exist, as, owing a good deal to the representations or our Society, the licensed homes were placed unuer the inspection of the matron of the Industrial .School, with a trained nurse to visit the homes, instead of being merely under police inspection. You must forgive me for going so much into detail, but there has been so much misapprehension about our Home tiiat 1 am glad of this opportunity .of publicly contradicting some of the statements made. pamjeklnu to \ ice.

One statement was that we were '•encouraging vice" by taking such care of the babies free of charge, thereby encouraging the mothers imu fathers to get rid, all too easily, of their, responsibilities. This was a preposterous statement. Maintenance ».as paid for every child in the Home on exactly the same scale as in the other homes, and we were paid in lull in many cases. I was told by a member of our Committee, who had had much experience in this task of collecting, that we had done exceptionally well in getting so much money in. The other statement was to the effect that the Society were left with these babies on their hands indefinitely. This was absolutely incorrect. . Every child that was with us .was cither provided by its relations or by ourselves with a suitable home. In one or two cases the children had to be placed in the Industrial School. We thought of closing the Home altogether eariy in 1908, owing to lack of funds, but were fated with this fact—our Home was full of sick babies. We were continually asked to take in more. A BABY HOSPITAL.

If we closed there was nowhere where the children could get skilled attention, as the General Hospital does not take in children under two years. Besides, while some were gravely ill, a great many cases that were brought to us were children in siu ailing condition, brought on by improper feeding, want of fresh air and cleanliness, etc., and were not, properly speaking, ordinary hospital cases.; yet we were assured by doctors that the babies would die if not taken in by us We decided to make an effort to keep the Home going. We first thought of a Saturday collection, but were asked by the Hospital Saturday Association not to do" this, as they thought it would interfere with their collection, and if we would forego this the Association would let us have a share of their collection. We decided upon a house-to-house collection of Dunedin and suburbs, including Port Chalmers. This resulted in £SOO being raised. OPEN TO ALL. The Home was no longer for illegitimate children, but for all and any who cared to send failing babies to us. How much the want of this Home has been felt may be seen by the fact that our Home has practically always as many as 12 inmates —the greatest number at one time being 18. Every child is paid for, but we have had to adopt a sliding scale of charges, according to the means of the parents. A\e have fitted up the Home with the greatest possible regard to economy. I speak authoritatively on this subject, as I personally had a great deal to do with it at tue start. AVe have a trained nurse as matron, a trained nurse as staff nurse to relievo the matron, and six probationers, a laundress ,and a general servant. The probationers are paid* at the rate of 6s a week ,and at the' end of 12 months' training, upon passing an examination set by our medical officers, they receive our certificate and are called '\Karitane" .Nurses. T'hey are then fully fitted to take responsible positions as children's nurses in private houses. We are continually asked for these nurses. At present we have two trained nurses in the Home receiving the special training to qualify them for positions in Auckland and Christchurch as extra Pluuket Nurses. We receive 10 guineas for their training from the branches of the Society. Within, the last two days we have been asked to take in two ailing babies from Canterbury. NOT OVER-STAFFED.

Sick babies require much more actention than adult patients, and that is why, to the superficial observer, it may seem that we have more help than is necessary. It must be remembered that an eight-hour system necessitates three nurses for every one on duty at a given time. We have-not arranged these details from an amateur's point of view. S\'e have all sections of the community represented on our Committee, and have had in the arrangements of the Karitane Home the inestimable benefit of the experience and advice of trained nurses, members of the Salvation Army, women who have worked at other kindred philanthropic work in this city, and ordinary housewives like myself, who have had years of experience in housekeeping. This Home is run on the same lines as a

hospital, where it is necessary that the best conditions must exist for the sick babies .and at the same time we must provide an object-lesson to the general public who visit us. THE VISITORS.

I may here mention that we have an average of 200 visitors a month, mainly mothers, nurses, and girls, who are given every possible opportunity lor learning practically just what a baby needs in order that it may thrive. We have lectures at the Homo for mothers to attend, and our Girls' Guild docs splendid work, some mothers coming dailv to the Home to help the nurses to look after the babies who are well enough to be carried about, handled, and given the "mothering" that counts for so much and which they cannot get in their own homes. This has overcome a great difficulty for us, the nurses not having time to give adequate attention in this direction to each individual child.

AFTER-CARE. When the babies leave the Home the mother can always call in the Plunket Nurse to heln her to carry on the treatment received at the Home until she is quite capable of managing by herself. Indeed, throughout the stay of babies in the Home the-mothers are encouraged to come ond nurse them, and to thus learn practically what is needed. Further, the Matron at Karitane alwavs communicates with the Plunket Nurse when any baby is about to leave the institution, and thus the continuity of the whole system is established. , The Society leave no stone unturned to promote and encourage breast-feed-ing Failing this, they advocate the use of Humanised Milk—that is. cow s milk properlv modified so as to be adapted to the needs of the baby, and the results more than justify its use. The Societv have been able to arrange with the T. and P. Dairy Company for its manufacture and distribution, the Society paying half the salary of tlie women employed in its preparation. This department is under the direction of the Plunket Nurse. One word I would like to say about the Committee. We do not pretend to lie "baby" experts, but we undertake to organise the work and get experts trained to help the women of Dunedin in the feeding and general care of their children. We do not pretend to know any more than they do; we don't. But we most of us know from our experience the want of expert advice .and we have every confidence that our Plunket Nurses are specially qualified to give this advice.