OUR BABIES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2616, 25 September 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

OUR BABIES.

- (By Hygeia.)

Published under the auspices of the Society for the Promotion of the Health of Women and Children. THE SOCIETY’S WORK IN CANTERBURY. The progress made by the two Canterbury branches of the society, centred at Christphurch and Timaru, has been very remarkable. , Christchurch, representing Central and North Canterbury, has been at work for two years, and Timaru, representing South Canterbury, lor some six months. In both cases the rate of progress has exceeded that of branches in other Provinces, while the gratitude expressed by parents in all directions.is the best testimony to the quality of the services rendered to another and child and the spirit in which the committees and nurses are working. That there have been great difficulties to surmount, both at Christchurch and Timaru. no one can doubt who knows anything about the conservatism and narrowness of the majority of mankind and womankind in all matters concerning the baby. "What, then, has enabled a handful of . women in two centres to successfully move a Province in the course of so short a time, without showing the public that they were carrying cm an arduous fight all the time against traditional superstition, prejudice' and ignorance, and not merely marching unopposed to easy victories? .Christchurch and Timaru have been singularly fortunate in all the factors essential to success. I. There lias been throughout in both centres keen sympathy, great enthusiasm, and entire confidence on the part of a few energetic leading spirits in the mission which the Society has undertaken and is pledged to carry through. 11. In- both centres, certain leading members of the medical profession have from the start shown not merely a passing interest in the Society’s doings, but have come forward and openly expressed their conviction of the soundness and beneficence of the work. The fact that Dr Alice Moorliouse was the first President of the Christchurch branch, and that Dp Finch, the head of the Public Health Service for the city, gave the Society every assistance and an unqualified backing tended to establish general confidence. In Timaru, the Plunket Nurse has received very strong support from doctors who have gone entirely out of their way to help forward the work and make the branch a success.

111. The Press in Canterbury lias given the Society every possible help and encouragement. Without this warm and generous support—tin’s unqualified endorsement and advocacy of our work—it would have taken many years to afrive at the present position. IV. The Plunket Nurses in Canterbury without any exception have shown a whole-hearted zeal, capability, tact, and enthusiasm in their mission which is beyond praise. The measure of their success has been the measure of their deserts —one cannot express one’s appreciation more emphatically than this. In thus drawing attention to and emphasising the progress of the work in Canterbury, it must be clearly Tinderstood that no reflection is made on the work of any other centre. Other individual branches have done similar work with similar success, but there is no Province in which so much has been effected in so'short a time, and I have thought it worth avhile to draw attention to the fact that this uniform steady progress has resulted from the harmonious working of a set of factors acting together—in other words, from a very striking andj excellent organisation.

REPORT OF CHRISTCHURCH ANN'UAIL MEETING. The Christchurch Branch of the Society for the Promotion of the Health of Women and Children has made steady progress since its last Annual Meeting in September, 1908. The objects of the Society are too well known now to need recapitulation, but as many new members have joined since last year, they might be briefly expressed by pointing out that, first and foremost, the Society endeavors to impress on mothers the importance of nursing their babies, and, when it is impossible, the preparation and dilution of Humanised Milk is taught, through the agency of Plunket Nurses, who visit in the homes wherever they are needed. A MUTUAL AID SOCIETY.

The Society is not a charitable organisation ; it seeks to educate people of every class, and though the Nurse’s services are free, it expects that people who have received help will send a suitable" subscription or donation to its funds if they are able to do so.

Her Excellency Lady Plunket, Patroness of the Society did a great deal to spread knowledge of its work by four lectures _which she very kindly gave in November 4 last. These were very largely attended, and great interest was shown. RAPID GROWTH.

work increased so rapidly after this that! both Nurses soon had their hands full, and in the autumn the Committee wero obliged to limit the distances in all directions. The Nurses’ hours at the South, are from 2 to 3 p.m. every day (except Saturdays and Sundays), and it is hdped that people living beyond a radius of two miles from Cathedral Square will not hesitate to go to the office for help. A STRIKING RECORD. Since til# Ist September, 1908, 318 cases have been dealt with by the Plunket Nurses here. Of these only 57 were healthy, 121 were ailing and delicate, 68 were seriously ill and needed great care, while 15 'were regarded as hopeless—of Avhom four died, and there were 57 correspondents. The Committee considoi’s that the Nurses have worked wonders in having not one death representing a failure to record.. Six children have died' while in the Nurses’ hands, four within a day or two of their first visit, being past all help, and two (twins), who had been doing splendidly, died in March, entirely owing, to obstinate neglect on jibe part of the niother. All of these could have been saved but for delay in the first four cases and “neglect in the last two. Those six? with one last .year, for whom it was also too late to do anytliing. form the whole list of deaths in a total of between 450 and 500 treated .during the year and 10 months' which have passed since this Branch of the Society began active operations. This makes a percentage of only 1.4, which is all the more remai’kable when it is remembered that th'e very large major-

ity of these cases have been experimented on for weeks with patent foods, crude cows’ milk, condensed' milk, biscuits, and other things before coming into the Nurses’ hands. Not only have these ohiklren not died, but, what is much more important, they are growing up strong instead of weak members of the community. The cases are visited almost daily at first, and! after that at short intervals for various lengths of time, some as long as a year. DROP IN DEATH RATE.

The Health Officer forwarded on June 18 a letter containing particulars of the infantile mortality in the four chief centres, showing a considerable drop all over the,Dominion. The greatest drop is to be noticed in Christchurch, where the infantile death rate for 1908 was a little more than half that for 1907. For the year ending March 31, 1909, there wero only eight deaths from infantile diarrhoea and enteritis in Christchurch and suburbs, only four of these occurring during the summer months. While not claiming more than a share in this improvement, the Committee feels that some of it may fairly he credited to tlielr work, and that these figures are most encouraging. Besides the actual saving of life, there is the still more encouraging fact of the improvement in the general health rate ol : infants, of which there is aanple proof.

EXTENSION OF FIELD

In view of the fact that "the Society is entirely supported by voluntary help (except for a Government subsidy the first year), and of tho fact that the Committee is anxious to increase the staff, they take this opportunity of asking those who , are .not yet subscribers to send a subscription, and those who have already joined to increase theirs, if possible. As so many inquiries come from the country the Committee has considered the possibility of sending a Nurse into the country at stated times, and this summer they intend establishing a 6iib-centre at Ashburton, which will be visited regularly. If funds permit, more may be done in this very important direction. The Plunket Nurses lecture regularly at St. Helens, and have also delivered other lectures when specially desired. No regular lectures to Mothers’ Unions have been undertaken this winter, the work being too exacting to permit it. Each month the number of new cases exceed.; those who have grown too old to need tho Nurses’ supervision or who go away, tho number on the list on August 1G at the last Comm.ttee meeting or the year being 132. A number of musing motlmrs have,also called for advice, and in many cases the need for resorting t;> artificial feeding has been staved off.

Every now and then cases occur when the mother cannot be made to understand the danger of haphazard feeding, or will not persevere; but these are very few compared with the largo number (including working women) of those who really grasp the principles the Society strives to inculcate. CENTRAL CONFERENCE.

A Central Conference of delegates from all branches will be held in October, in Wellington, where matters demanding concerted action by tho whole Society will bo considered. As these will probably become annual, much may,,be hoped from them, and as several more districts propose to form branches in tho near future, it seems possible to hope that the tide of preventable infantile mortality may at last be stemmed, and that the proper education of mothers will continue systematically, and permeate all classes of society. THE TIMARU BRANCH. Nearly six months has yet to pass before the Society at Timaru will hold its first annual meeting. Meanwhile th.e following extract from a private letter received last week from the Plunket Nurse conveys a good idea of the progress of the work. EXTRACT FROM LETTER. There are now 118 babies under eare, and I am not having any trouble with the oases —they go on normally. We had our first public meeting in Temuka on the Bth instant, with a gathering of 70 women—l thought about 50, but the report says 70. However, it was a good meeting, resulting in my getting six babie's on the Temuka roll. The arrangement is that I am to go out once a month; someone is lending a room where the mothers can come. If anyone requires me during the month I am to go out, the parents paying the fare. At the end of the month Fairlie and outlying districts will open their branch, and we hope to have quite as good a meeting there. Geraldine is making preparations too. The several guilds, mothers’ meetings, and sewing bees of the Timaru Churches have arranged for afternoon lectures. The Technical School Class, has a membership roll of 18 or 20' with a regular attendance. The women are interested, judging by their questions.

In addition, in a previous letter the Nurse mentioned how generously she had been treated by more than one person putting their motor cars at her disposal for use when she happened to bo called to a distance into the country.