THE BABIES.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 14725, 2 August 1921, Page 3

THE BABIES.

By Hygeia.

Published under the auspices of the Royal New Zealand 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." THE- CARE OF MILK. In our last article we were dealing ■with the difficulties and dangers of the artificial feeding of babies and calves—practically the only two mammals which are ever deprived of their natural birthright—i.e., their own mothers' milk. We pointed out how germs grow and multiply in milk if it remains for any length of time at about the temperature of blood-heat—namely, 100 deg. Fahr.; how necessary it is to have cleanliness in the milking-sked, rapid cooling of the milk immediately after milking, keeping the milk cool and loosely covered . to prevent the entrance of impurities. We also pointed out that temperatures over 120 deg. Fahr. or below 40deg. Fahr. are very unfavourable to the growth of microbes, and are therefore safe for thei keeping of milk. We now go on to the matter of safeguarding milk in the home, and in this connection we make the following extracts'from an exhaustive report of the Special' Milk Board of the Massachusetts State Department of Health, published in 1916.

EDUCATING MOTHERS.

The report says: —

The contamination of the milk after delivery at the home is perhaps our most common present source of danger. No matter how pure and clean the supply, dirt added in the home renders the article just ,as deleterious as dirt added at any point previously, allowing only for the length of time between pollution and use and its proportionate bacterial growth. ... We have laws and regulations which, according to our experience, are controlling the producer and the dealer to some degree —many believe to a ' large degree —but we have no way of reaching by legal means' tho consciously or unconsciously dirty woman in her home. The dirtiness is both visible and invisible, whether added by the producer or the housekeeper. There is no excuse for visible in either case; it can be explained in only one way. Bacteriological dirt is not visible, and its-'presence may be due either to ignorance, to carelessness, or to a wilful [disregard of teaching. Women do not want their babies to die. When they are told where the danger lies, and really believe that.!' does'lie there, there is not much wilful disregard left. THE VISITING NURSES.

So far we have evolved just one agency that answers these /equirements —the visiting- nurse. The mother believes that the nurse knows what she is talking about; that she is not visiting, her to make capital out of her, but to protect her baby; that she is a woman, and cannot help loving babies; in short, she gives her her complete confidence. The nurse's visits are frequent, and the mother dop3 not have much time to get rankly careless between them. At Well visit the nurse brings the school to the home in lessons graded and fitted to the personal intellectual capacity of the woman. Combine this system of education with- a pure milk supply, and we have the framework of our present-day methods.in the attempt'to reduce,our infant mortality rate.

WHAT.THE SOCIETY HAS BEEN

DOING

It is gratifying to know that ever since the Society started, over 14 rears ago, the policy laid down iithe Massachusetts report has been earned out—at first in Dunedin, and gradually throughout the whole Dominion. One of the first acts of the newlyformed Society, in 1907, was to try and procure as pure a milk supply as possible. Some members of the committee visited a large number of dairy farms in the vicinity of Dunedin', and, having selected the most desirable—one , where the surroundings were clean and the milk was cooled down rapidly immediately after milking—they subsidised the farmer to help him to make certain improvements in his milking shed, in order to ensure greater cleanliness. They then arranged that the supply of milk from that particular farm'should be available for babies who had to be artificially fed. At the same time a nurse —the first Plur.ket nurse —was employed, who modified the cow's milk to make it fit for a human baby, and saw that the modified milk was sent out cool and clean. She visited the homes, showed the mothers how to safeguard the milk, where to keep it cool, and how to cleanse and purify all vessels used either for holding the milk- or feeding the baby. There have always been clear, definite instructions with regard to the cooling and keeping of milk'and the cleansing of .all utensils, in each edi-

tion of the Society's book, "Feeding and Care of the Baby," since it first appeared in leaflet form in 1905 until the present edition, where details are given on 'pages 28, 29, and 86 to 90. REMEMBER. ()1 The milk-jug must be thoroughly cleansed. First, rinse with cold water, then wash thoroughly, and lastly scald well with boiling water aud turn the jug upside down till needed-

(2) Keek the milk cool .and loosely covered. If milk has to be pasteurised or boiled, it must be cooled down immediately, and kept cool.