OUR BABIES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17881, 24 June 1926, Page 12

OUR BABIES.

By

HYGEIA.

Published under the auspices of the Royal New Zealand Society t for the Health of Women and chil- ; dren (Plunket Society). t “It is wiser to put up a fence at c the top of a precipice than to main- 1 tain an ambulance at the bottom.” < ] TIIE AIMS AND OBTECTS } OF THE ROYAL NEW ZEALAND SO- * CIETY FOR THE HEALTH OF . J WOMEN AND CHILDREN. (As set forth in the Annual Report of ; the Wellington Branch for the Year ■ : Ending March 31, 1926.) 1. To uphold the Sacredness of the Body and the Duty of Health; to in- , culcate a lofty view of the responsi- , bilities of maternity and the dutj' of every mother to fit herself for the perfect fulfilment of the natural calls of motherhood, both before and after childbirth, and especially to advocate and promote the breast-feeding of infants. 2. To acquire information and knowledge on matters affecting the Health of Women and Children, and to disseminate such knowledge through the agency of its members, nurses, and others, by means of the natural hand-ing-on from one recipient or beneficiary to another, and the use of such agencies as periodical meetings at members’ houses or elsewhere, demonstrations, lectures, correspondence, newspaper articles, pamphlets, books, etc. 3. To train specially and to employ qualified nurses, to be called Plunkct Nurses, whose duty it will be to give sound, reliable instruction, advice, and assistance gratis to any member of the community desiring such services, on matters affecting the health and well-being of women, especially during pregnancy and while nursing infants, and on matters affecting the health and well-being of their children: and also to endeavour to educate and help parents and others in a practical way in domestic hygiene in general—all these things being done with a view to conserving the health and strength of the rising- generation, and rendering both mother and offspring hardy, healthy, and resistive to disease. 4. To co-operate with any present or future organisations which are working for any of the foregoing or cognate obiects. X.B. —The society was started as a League for Mutual Helpfulness and Mutual Education, with a lull recognition of the fact that:, so lai as j motherhood and babyhood were con- j cerned. there was as much need for practical reform and ** going to school” j on the part of the cultured and | well-to-do as there was on the part ■ of the so-called " poor and ignorant.” Our society was founded nineteen ! vears ago, and a new generation has arisen in the meanwhile. Children who were not in their teens at the <tart are now heads of families, and manv of them play an important part in directing or influencing the course of the society's work m various ways. \Ye. therefore, think it desirable , to reaffirm our "Aims and Objects,” as ■printed at the beginning of every annual report, and which have never varied since first drafted m 11107. There is one “Aim” to which our attention is called from time to time by adverse criticism on the part ot ..some of the new generation of our •.importers. They recognise the ama<W success of the societv and its great and growing- value in the life and health of the community; but they think it unreasonable to ask anyone who does not profit immediate,y, , direct! v and personally by its teachI • «, trVini'lS and hei P to subscribe to 1 its upkeep. They say. " Let those \ v j lo make use ot tne society. The spread, success, and ever-widen-ing influence of our work have been admittedly phenomenal, and we ought ’ all of tif- to try and realise and undei- : S f anf i the reason for this, and not rc--1 cv->rd it. as due to 111 ere chance or acci- : dent Vfe know, on the contrary, that • ?£. success of our Health Mission to 1 Parents has been due to the intrinsic • value of the sound, well-thought-out t instruction and practical training given bv our nurses and conveyed in our books, etc.; and also_ to the ease with which this instruction can be had - “ Hist for the asking.” The argument ■ that people do not value what costs [ them -ethnic is entirely refuted in this | case by the very large number of suborrihers to the society among the ranks of those it has helped, and by the

wonderful response from “ Plunket Parents ” whenever we ask them to help us in any special effort. That is the experience of every branch of the Plunket Societv. Our work is primarily* educational and humanitarian —our aim being to teach the mothers the rules of hygiene applying to their own health and that of their children. This object can only be attained by the co-oneration of the mothers themselves, and as many of them have to Lie educated into understanding that they need the knowledge we can supply, we on our part have to maintain an organisation to give this instruction—and to give it freely* and gladly to whoever comes seeking the necessary information or help. The essential work of the Plunket Society is on exactly the same footing as the educational system of the Dominion. The Government does not wait for children to ask it to educate them: it provides and organises schools for their instruction—indeed, it goes one step further, and obliges the children to attend its schools whether the parents are convinced of the benefit or necessity of their doing so or not. In other words, the Government compels the children to be educated for the good of the whole community. We say the mothers also must be educated, for the same reason; otherwise, we shall all suffer by the increase in the number of costly institutions needed to provide for the. unfit members of the population In support of our scheme for the education, care, and safeguarding of mother and child we appeal to the

community* to take the place of the Government by enabling us to continue to provide a better and more acceptable means of voluntary (but Statesubsidised) education than any Government Department in the world can supply. The object of the Plunket Society's scheme of education is to raise the standard of health in the home and in the nursery and thus assure a race of capable, efficient children— strong healthy, and resistive to disease. We feel that this is the only way* to prevent the increase and accumulation of the unfit and submerged and diseased who have become a drag and handicap in the Old World. In order to attain our object we must look to the willing and hearty cooperation of the self-reliant adults of New Zealand. Selfish individuality and a narrow outlook would prevent anything really effective being done in a matter of this kind. Wo need the broad-minded, enlightened, and generous support of the whole community. Our nurses ought to be looked upon in their true light as friends and advisers. not as collectors of fees. The Education Department does not ask its teachers to collect fees from the children of their parents. However, we arc fully alive to the fact that alt those who avail themselves of the services of the Plunket Nurses or tho Karitane Hospitals should feel doubly bound to support the society by tiecoming members, and by making such other contributions to its building and working funds as they* can afford. Everyone is now waking up to tho 1 fact that untrained, ignorant parents arc a. source of great danger and distress, and that they* impose a very serious expense on all taxpayers—■ direct and indirect—in the building and in the upkeep of hospitals, asylums, gaols, and various charitable institutions. We. are satisfied that, in New Zealand, at least, the best way to overcome this cruel and expensive form of. ignorance—parental ignorances—is to support 1 he. organisation which has been working steadily and consistently towards that end for nearly twenty years along lines that are becoming more and more widely recognised and appreciated throughout the whole world. But we must Liear in mind that good education is always expensive in the first instance, though the yield ol its. harvest is a thousandfold.