OUR BABIES.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160711, 26 July 1920, Page 4

OUR BABIES.

By HYGEIA. Published under the auspices of tho Royal New Zealand Society for tho 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.” CHILD ’WELFARE IN AMERICA. People in New Zealand may wonder why the Children’s Bureau and the whole Child Welfare movement in the United States comes officially under the Department of Labour. We always -wondered about this ourselves; and, on asking the question at headquarters in Washington, we were told that the Legislature and the Government practically never heard anything about children, or recognised their existence, except as regards their wrongs in connection with long hours and overwork in factories, etc., and the need to legislate for their protection. WHAT THEY DO IN NEW YORK. The Central Children’s Bureau in Washington and the great practically independent bureaus which have been founded in every State of the Union, now constitute a vast network spread over the whole country. Some idea of the magnitude of this complex organisation and the rapidity of its growth can be formed from the fact thav in the last 12 years the Children’s Bureau in New York has grown from nothing to a staff headed and controlled by Dr Josephine Baker, assisted by about lot.) doctors, who devote half their time to this work, and more than 100 wholetime visiting nurses and 200 extra nurses. The latter are mobilised during the summer months in order to safeguard babies, as far as possible, from the risks of infantile diarrhoea. Our readers will wonder where the 200 supernumerary nurses are drawn from. This was one of many masterful measures evolved by Dr Josephine Baker. The army of school nurses come under her control, and it occurred to her that the nature of the duties of school nurses did not necessitate their having the long vacations required for recuperation in the case of school teachers, whose lives are more sedentary; and involve a greater stress on the brain and nervous system. It was decided to keep these nurses employed in what would otherwise be their summer vacation, helping to visit the homes of perhaps 100,000 mothers of young children, and thus staving oil disease in the most critical season of the year, PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE The outstanding feature of Dr Josephine Baker’s policy was tho recognition from the start that her main duty lay not in dealing with disease, but in preventing it, by establishing “Well Baby Centres” and “Milk Depots,” and by sending round visiting nurses to train, advise, help, and direct the mothers in their own homes. Her nurses go out, as do our Plunket nurses in New Zealand, to teach mothers the simple laws of life and health. When they come across any form of debility or disease beyond the ordinary range they refer such cases to the doctors, or get them treated in hospitals. Josephine Baker’s nurses are essentially practical teachers of domestic hygiene throughout the homes of the poorer classes in the community j and their work is so well done that, though the density of population in certain quarters of New York is three times greater than that of the most crowded areas in London, the infantile death rate for New York City has been brought below that of London. It is impossible to over-estimate the practical significance of this great hygienic crusade.

When in New York two and a-half years ago Dr Truby King saw a great deal of Dr Josephine Baker and her staff, and ho was very much struck with the harmonious and effeemve working of the organisation. A letter recently received by Dr King from Miss Pattrick (ex-matron of Karitanc Hospital and for the last two years matron of the Baby Hospital in London, founded and run on New Zealand lines) refers to a visit she had paid to Dr Baker in New York. Miss Pattrick wrote from Montreal on her return journey to New Zealand, where it is hoped she will assume the broad direction of the Society’s nursing scheme throughout the whole Dominion. The following is an extra from Miss Pattrick’s letter:— We had five days in New York, and a very busy time. I had a very interesting interview with Dr Josephine Baker (head of the Infant Welfare Department) and also with Dr Sobel, her first assistant. They both sent very cordial greetings to you. They arranged for one of their superintendent nurses to take me round various baby health stations, and to show me other things of in ; terest. I had quite a long talk with Professor Holt, and he gave me his cards for the Walkor-Gordon Milk Dispensary, and also for the Infants’ Hospital; further, he invited my friend and myself to lunch with them on the Sunday, when we met Mrs Holt too. Dr Holt, Professor of Childrens’ Diseases at Columbia University, and omsulting physician to several New York baby hospitals, is the leading authority in America on Infancy and Child Welfare. His text books both for doctors and nurses are well-known all over tho world. WHAT REMAINS TO BE DONE. So far almost no attempt has been made in America to educate and help the more independent and self-reliant four-fifths of the community—as we do in New Zealand, —hut this will come in due course. We shall publish next week a very admirable American leaflet, “A Problem for Parents,” which sums up in a way which will appeal equally to all classes, “what growing children need.” It is issued by the U.S. Department of Labour, Children’s Bureau, Washington, 1919.