Extracts from Reports of Nurses in charge of the New Zealand Plunket Centre in Jaffa, Palestine

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume XVI, Issue 2, 1 April 1923, Page 61

Extracts from Reports of Nurses in charge of the New Zealand Plunket Centre in Jaffa, Palestine

June 8, 1922 Yesterday. June 7th, the New Zealand Plunket Centre, Jaffa, Palestine, was officially opened by Miss Zold (Head of the Eadassah Medical Organisation and Chairman of the Palestine Committee of the W.1.Z.0.) in the presence of the Mayor and several officials of Telaviv and Jaffa, the local committee and other influential residents. The Governor of Jaffa regretted his inability to be present. The company expressed their surprise and pleasure at the appearance of the Centre, which certainly looks unexpectedly cool and fresh when coming in from the heat of sun and sand. (The rooms are cream washed, woodwork and ceilings painted blue, floors tiled, and furniture and curtains white) . Tea and cakes were served after the speeches, which were delivered in Hebrew. Our little knowledge of the language enabled us to understand some of the expressions of goodwill and encouragement towards the Centre and its workers . The work is progressing slowly, but, we think, surely. The country is new to preventive work and does not readily understand the need of a clinic giving neither medicine nor food. We are endeavouring to spread the idea of our work to the mothers through the midwives. We have seen many who have promised their support, and we are now organising a special meeting for them in order to explain our work and the need for their co-operation. Our greatest hope, of course, is in the work itself, and we have definitely succeeded in restoring the breast milk in five cases, while in five others progress is satisfactory. September 11, 1922. This month we are able to tell you that Dr. Zlocisti has commenced to hold his weekly consultations at our Clinic. He attends every Wednesday morning at 8

o'clock, and already our numbers are increasing. We are enclosing you a photograph of a few of our babies awaiting his arrival; also one of the room in which he holds his consultations. Fortunately, among our mothers is a large percentage of young women with their first babies. When there is no superstitious grandmother in the rear, it is easy to train these mothers in the way they should go. Some of the superstitions one meets with would be laughable if they were not affecting the well-being of tiny babies. Our massage cases have again been successful, and it is pleasing to hear that some of the sceptical doctors of Jaffa and Tel Aviv are now admitting the value of our methods. We find that the babies of Palestine compare fairly well with those of England. A large proportion of those who attend the Clinic are of Russian or Polish parents. Among these there is a marked absence of rickets, due no doubt to our abundance of sunshine and clear air, amongst other factors. You will see by our monthly report that we are now visiting our mothers. This is no easy task as most of the streets have no names, and none of them have numbers. Many of the people still live in tents or barracks on the sand dunes, and sometimes after wandering from one to the other, one is unsuccessful in tracing the family. The weather is still very warm and moist, but we are looking forward to the cool months, when we hope our mothers will find it easier to come to us. The township of Tel Aviv is growing rapidly, and it is most interesting to watch a town spring up which is entirely inhabited by Jews. October 20, 1922. We thought it would be interesting to your members to hear about the general situation in Palestine with regard to the question of Infant Welfare.

In the Medical Officer's Annual Report for 1921 it is stated: "There are few problems more urgent than the establishment of centres for the teaching of midwifery and infant management. " It continues that as at the present time the Government cannot afford to open centres, it is hoped that voluntary ones will be started. The enclosed cutting will show you that Lady Samuel is taking a personal interest in the welfare of the babies of Palestine. She has promised to visit our centre the next time she comes to Jaffa. The figures given in the Medical Officer's Report show how very necessary it is to take preventive measures in the country. During 1921 the population of Jaffa, including Tel Aviv, was 45,100. The number of births per thousand was 29.4 and the number of babies who died under one year was 240 . 6 per 1000 . Jerusalem has a population of 64,000; the number of babies born was 25.8 per 1000, and the number of deaths under one year was 150.6 per 1000. The Infant Mortality rate of Jaffa is not the worst in the country. One Aral) district claims 480 deaths per 1000 during 1921. There are fifty-one qualified midwives in Palestine and a very large number of unqualified ones. Even some of the former arc very out-of-date in their methods. The September Report of the Centre is, I think, distinctly encouraging, not so much by the increasing number of attendances as by the look of the babies. There is an obvious improvement in their general appearance, and also in the way the mothers listen to our advice. Very different from their first sceptical look and hopeless shrug when they found that they got no medicine but wholesome advice. Of course the biggest trouble here,, as elsewhere, is caused by either over-feed-ing, improper feeding, irregular and night-fecdimg. Objection to the latter is Dr. Zlocisti's strong point. No mother, from the daughter-in-law of the High Commissioner to our poorest Jemenite, escapes his thundered NO in reply to

their query about just, one feed in the night . The mothers here have my deepest sympathy, and I have a profound respect for the mother foresighted enough to suffer present difficulties and surmount them in order to secure for her baby regular good health in the future. In this country, where no one family has a house to itself, where flats and rooms, shanties, barracks and tents are the order of the day, it needs some strength of mind to refrain from quieting a crying baby any and every hour. Ft is no uncommon thing to see babies at the breast the whole day long in the houses, yards, streets, &nd marketplace. Any remonstrance meets with its answer: "Well, what can I do, it is always crying?" Naturally we are doing our best to prevent the life-giving fluid being turned into poison in this fashion, and little by little, by weekly, bi-weekly and sometimes daily, repeating the same thing we are hammering home the first elementary rules of infant-feeding. The change in a few weeks from a miserable, puling, weak scrap of humanity to a smiling healthily-kicking baby is very encouraging. The baby on its first appearance at the Clinic is quite unable to kick, as it is closely wrapped in innumerable odd cloths and then closely bound to a pillow with a long binder. The latter does not obviate the inevitable first binder. Tt requires much eloquence to induce mother to part with binder and pillow. Here again we are ably supported by Dr. Zlocisti, who is a true baby lover. He is anxious that we should supply milk for nursing mothers who are unable to afford it. Here is still unfortunately a good deal of unemployment and some of the mothers who come to us are often sadly in need. We have made a practice of giving a cup of milk to drink after massage. We have to realise that for these women to come to us daily for massage is an act of faith, because it not only means a trudge through the sand, but the time for it must be stolen from their household

labours. The mothers come to us once daily and for the second time we go to them, when the difficulty is to procure hot water and sometimes even cold. But results are decidedly encouraging. We have among our mothers a pair whom I wish you could see. They are Jemenites, twin sisters 16 years old and very beautiful. One has a child of six months; the other a baby of five weeks. Both children were undersized and weakly but are now doing us credit . The two mothers have responded to the advice and assistance in a very intelligent fashion. Then we have a pair of twin babies of 11 months of Jemcnite parentage. The

father is consumptive ; he is a caretaker and has received no pay for quite four months. We are supplying the babies with milk and cod liver oil. They were underweight, flabby and pale, and took three weeks* anxious care and thought before they responded to treatment and began to progress favourably. One is doing better than the other, who unfortunately has glands. I could go on indefinitely about our different babies, but I must not forget. that infant care is far from unknown to you and there is no originality in the mismanagement of babies, it is much the same all the world over.