Mental Defectives Amendment Act, 1928

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume XXII, Issue 3, 1 July 1929, Page 134

Mental Defectives Amendment Act, 1928

An interesting development of the Special Board set up under the above Act, is the appointment of an officer who will do the home investigation, and follow up work, which is being established for the care of retarded and defective children under the direction of a qualified phychiatrist.

The first clinic is to be started m Wellington, and the duties of the officer include the visiting and interviewing of parents, and watching over the attendance of the children at the clinics and their developments. No doubt, m so doing, many cases will be discovered who need the special treatment and tuition.

It is gratifying to learn that the first appointment has been given to a nurse, Mrs. Dick, formerly Sister Mary Hobbs, trained at the Wellington Hospital.

Mrs. Dick served m England during the war, but married while on service.

Lately she has been engaged m Child Welfare Work, under the Education Department. Her experience as a nurse and also as a mother, fit her very well for the position, which is a new one m Xew Zealand, and which will probably m the near future be followed by similar appointments m other centres.

per cent, of the babies were dying of tetanus, so he circulated a pamphlet showing- how it could be avoided. Dr. Kirk gave parents the guarantee that if they brought the baby to hospital within 30 to 36 hours of birth, he would save every baby from the deadly and muchfeared trouble. We ' started this baby clinic with but a very few cases m a year, but last year 473 of these cases were treated.

IT. Wrong Feeding. — The babies are fed on biscuits and rice right from the first day. I was called into a home where twins were born, and when I reached the house, one child was already born and was being lavishly fed on biscuits before his little brother came home. Consequently, there is much suffering among the babies, and m the summer time, they are usually covered with boils from the "crown of the head to the sole of the foot." In our baby clinic we are seeking to get mothers on to right lines of feeding.

Superstition. — Another cause for much suffering among babies is superstition, which holds the Christless heart like a vice.

Here are a few instances

A baby cries, so he has to be burned all over to drive out evil spirits, or the hair is pulled out along the crown of the head, so as to make a road for the evil spirits to get out.

A woman came m with a baby on her hack. I found the baby had been born

blind. Dr. Kirk assured the granny that nothing could be done, so she said she would take the baby home to die. Then she turned to another woman and said, "1 told you so. A few days before the baby was born the mother helped to fill m a well, and now the evil spirits are having their revenge on her. They have filled m the baby's eyes/ The mother would be ill-treated for her "sin against her gods."

Another morning a woman came m with a basket on her arm, and when I looked I saw the most emaciated and repulsive looking baby I have ever seen. Around its neck was a red paper hung from a string telling when baby had been put out from the home. She had been a much wanted child, but on the sixth morning her mother took very ill and baby was supposed to be casting an evil influence. So to save the mother, they steeled their hearts and put her out on the hills. The woman who brought her to me, said she found her lying under a branch of a tree up on the hillock out from the village. I could not save the child, for she had been lying out exposed to the cold too long and the three days without food gave her no fighting chance.

It is a great work among the babies and mothers of these villages, and a life full of joy because one knows one is just where there is a need. You and I, whether at home or on the foreign field, have the joy that our work is such that it makes us co-workers with Jesus Christ.