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Show A N A I ' tr k' if - x-,v A v if , y ij ?Y wr; . W(4 "v-j V lwt Y fc- YY A r--gH v v- Vt v jjh dB!. Left Photograph of Mrs. J. Ernest Schiller of Philadelphia which won the $250 International grand prize for the "Loveliest Mother in the United States and Canada" in a $20,000 contest conducted by the Photographer' Association of America. (Photograph, courtesy of the Photographers' Association of America.) Center "The Spirit of Motherhood." This composite Madonna results from the features of 271 paintings which range in date from 1293 to 1823. It was made by Joseph Gray Kitchell after 31 years of Btudy. Right Photograph of Mrs. Blanche Rusby of Detroit, which won the $500 International grand prize In the contest mentioned above. (Photograph, courtesy of the Photographers' Association of America.) By ELMO SCOTT WATSON i AAY 10 is the day this year I I N when America honors its 1 mothers. In accordance k 11 LA with a resolution passed tby congress in 1914, designating desig-nating the second Sunday in May as Mother's day and asking the President to issue a proclamation calling upon government officials to display the flag upon public buildings, President Woodrow Wilson Wil-son issued such a procla-' procla-' mation, asking his fellow- citizens similarly to display dis-play flags at their homes as "a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country." Since that time the day has been generally observed throughout the United States and there has grown up the custom of sending to our mothers letters, telegrams, flowers, candy and other gifts on that day as well as honoring hon-oring them by wearing a white carnation carna-tion if one's mother is dead and a colored col-ored carnation if she Is still living. All of which expresses a pretty sentiment senti-ment and the origin and regular observance ob-servance of Mother's day in the United States are facts in which Americans take considerable pride. But to offset this pride in the pretty sentiment is an ugly fact of which many Americans are not aware. And that fact Is that the mortality rate from maternity causes in the United States is the highest in the civilized world, and that 10,000 of 16,000 American mothers who die each year from childbirth causes need not die if they are given adequate maternity care I Do you doubt that statement about the mortality rate among American mothers? If so, look at these official figures, fig-ures, compiled by the children's bureau of the United States Department of Labor for 1927 (the latest year for veliich figures for most of these countries coun-tries were available) in regard to the maternity death rates, per 1,000 live babies, for the following countries: Uruguay 2.2 Italy 2.6 Japan 2.8 The Netherlands 2.9 Finland 3.0 Hungary 3.0 Denmark 3.1 Czechoslovakia 3.6 Switzerland 3.7 Spain 3.9 England and Wales 4.1 Esthonia 4.1 Irish Free State 4.5 Northern Ireland 4.8 New Zealand 4.9 Lithuania , 5.0 Canada 5.0 Chile 5.S Australia 5.9 Salvador 6.3 Scotland 6.4 United States G.5 In the light of these statistics and the custom of wearing white carnations carna-tions in honor of mothers who have died, some one has asked this very appropriate ap-propriate question, "Does it not seem that 10,000 white carnations, one for each mother who needlessly died in the last year as a result of motherhood, mother-hood, represent too great a toll In pain and sorrow to be paid for by sentiment senti-ment alone?" However, an answer to that question may be found in a movement which Is already under way. For this year the observance of Mothers' day marks the beginning of a nation-wide educational campaign to reduce the mortality rate among American mothers so that 10,-000 10,-000 shall not die in vain each year. This campaign has been started by Mrs. John Sloan-, president of the Maternity Center association in New York city, and it has the indorsement of high government officials. At a recent White House conference President Hoover said, "When mothers moth-ers understand the standards of care, they will demand protection." Sur geon-General II. S. Cummlng of the United States public health service in indorsing the campaign as a new form of Mother's day observance has declared, de-clared, "The high maternal death rate is a disgrace to our profession and I am convinced that efforts such as these will go far toward Improving conditions." Similarly Grace Abbott, chief of the children's bureau, stated, "There are no more tragic deaths than of mothers in childbirth, and I feel sure that, if it were understood by the people of the United States that to a very large extent these deaths are preventable, they would be prevented." Typhoid fever, smallpox and diphtheria diph-theria have yielded to scientific control con-trol In the last quarter century, and tuberculosis has been reduced to half its toll, as almost everyone knows. But the death rate from causes connected con-nected with maternity has not been lowered at all during the period for which records are available. Italy, Denmark and five other nations na-tions have maternal death rates less than half that of the United States, which, as has been seen, is twenty-second on the roster of the nations of the world. In many of these countries the results have been commonly achieved by legislation requiring obedience, obe-dience, but in the United States improvement im-provement cannot be expected by such drastic action unless there is popular opinion back of it. "We have refused to address ourselves our-selves effectively to this problem for at least twenty-five years," says Dr. Ralph w. Lobenstine, a noted obstetrician obste-trician of New York city. "If we are to improve conditions we must face them, not rationalize. The humiliating humiliat-ing conclusion is that this national disgrace dis-grace can be removed when, as a people, peo-ple, we set out 'to remove it." "The Idea of going to a physician at once," states Dr. Frank W. Lynch, a leading obstetrician of San Francisco, "may seem ridiculous to the ordinary woman. She would not think so If she realized the value of taking things in time. In nearly every hospital in the land, it will be found that most tragedies trage-dies occur in women who were not under un-der medical supervision during the period pe-riod of the child's development." "Perhaps the root of the difficulty," states Carolyn Conant Van Blarcom, in her book, "Obstetrical Nursing," "lies in the fact that childbirth, as well as the attendant suffering and death, are so familiar that they are regarded as being normal incidents In the ordinary course of affairs. One of the most dramatic of all human events, the birth of a new being, Is accepted ac-cepted casually, almost without concern, con-cern, because it is so frequent so commonplace. "Moreover, we are all accustomed to hearing stressed the fact that child-bearing child-bearing Is not a disease, but is a normal nor-mal physiological function. Not so generally, however, do we hear emphasis emph-asis put upon the equally important fact that there Is extreme danger of infection while thes physiological functions are In progress, and that they must subject the entire organism to such a strain that there results a dangerously narrow margin between health and disease." Here Is the evidence that adequate maternity care saves mothers' lives. Louis I. Dublin, Ph. D., statistician of the Metropolitan Life Insurance company, and an expert Internationally known, examined the records of 4,720 mothers cared for by the Maternity Center association over a period of six years in a certain section of New York city. He compared the results wlUi what happened to mothers in the same section of the city not receiving such care. This showed that those in the first group have about three times as good a chance to survive as the others. "The result," says his report, "Is Indicative In-dicative of the saving of lives that might be accomplished were every mother to receive the benefit of adequate ade-quate maternity care. As more than 16,000 women In the United States every ev-ery year die from causes related to maternity, this means that more than 10,000 deaths are preventable. In addition, ad-dition, 30,000 of the 100,000 babies who now die In the first month of life, would be saved. Infants, as well -m mothers, are protected by adequate maternity care. "There is nothing peculiar to the civilization of the United States to account ac-count for the fact that our maternal deatli rate is more than twice that of such countries as Denmark and the Netherlands, where records are kept as carefully as they are here. This country's low position on the roster of nations of the world Is because there is a striking absence here of trained care for the great mass of women in moderate circumstances who have children. "We have allowed things to go on with indifference to the waste of lives of mothers and babies, assuming that all was well, when decidedly It was not. The situation cries to high heaven heav-en for a remedy." Adequate maternity care is the observation, ob-servation, care and instruction by doctors doc-tors and nurses of mothers from the time the woman thinks she may be pregnant until she is able to resume her regular activities and to care for her new- baby, according to Hazel Cor-bin, Cor-bin, general director of the Maternity Center association. Commenting on the work done by this organization which reduced the death rate among mothers to 2.2 per thousand live births as against 6.5 In the country as a whole, Miss Corbln adds : "Nurses urge each mother to register as early as possible with the private doctor or hospital physician who will deliver her so he may direct her care during pregnancy and know all about her when it comes time for the delivery and care of the baby. Each mother is helped to select, from the facilities available, what is best suited to her condition. "The nurses, working with the doctors doc-tors and reporting to them each time they see the mothers, visit each mother moth-er at regular Intervals during pregnancy. preg-nancy. They help the doctor or midwife mid-wife during delivery nnd make regular visits afterward and give, or teach some responsible person to give, the necessary care to mother and baby, as well as see that the household Is running run-ning smoothly so the mother can rest as long as necessary, and gradually, as the doctor advises, resume her usual usu-al activities and Increased responsibilities. responsi-bilities. "The aim of maternity care is to secure for every mother the minimum of mental and physical discomfort during dur-ing pregnancy; the maximum of mental men-tal and physical fitness when the baby comes; the reward of a well baby and the knowledge to care for herself and baby." 1931. 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