Milford News | 1938-05-05 | Page 2 | Why not Honor all Mothers by Making their Motherhood Safer?

Why Not Honor All Mothers by Making Their Motherhood Safer? Eatween 10,000 and 16,000 American Women Lose Their Lives Every Year from Causes Connected with Childbirth; This Death Rate, Which Is Fifth Highest in the Civilized Vorld, Can Ee Greatly Reduced by Extension of Education in Maternal Care. Western Newspaper Union. ny EL7.10 COTT WATSON C C TTISa very pretty sen-I sen-I timcnt to set aside one day of the year for honoring mothers and for sending them letters, telegrams, tele-grams, flowers, candy and other gifts. So, by all means, let us keep this custom. But why can't we do more than that? Why not spend an equal amount of money each year and put forth an equal amount of effort toward making mak-ing motherhood safer than it is today?" That is what many people are saying when they learn the grim fact that the maternal ma-ternal death rate is higher in the United States than it is in any other so-called civilized country in the world. "If we will cut down that death rate," they continue, "then there will be more mothers of the future fu-ture alive to enioy the flowers, candy, etc., which their sons and daughters will send them on Monther's day. How many would there be? "Somewhere between 10,000 and 16,000! That's an estimate of the number of American mothers who lose their lives each year from causes associated with childbirth. And the tragic part of it is that they need not die if they are given adequate maternity ma-ternity care!" Here is the record of maternal mortality, according to the United Unit-ed States Children's bureau, for 1934 (the latest year for which figures fig-ures for all of these countries are available) : Deaths Per 10,000 Live Births. Chile 91 Lithuania 67 Northern Ireland .... 63 Scotland 62 United States 59 Australia 59 Belgium 54 Canada . .." 53 Germany 50 Greece 50 New Zealand 49 Czechoslovakia 48 Irish Free State 47 England and Wales . . 46 Switzerland 46 Denmark 39 Hungary 38 Estonia 34 Netherlands 32 Norway 29 JaDan 28 Italy 27 Uruguay 23 - The report for 1935, which is not so complete as that for the previous year, shows that the United States cut the death rate cown from 59 to 58. But other countries almost without an ex ception, made a better showing. Australia cut hers from 58 to 53; Canada from 53 to 49; Chile from 81 to 86; Czechoslovakia from 48 to 46; England and Wales from 46 to 41; Estonia from 34 to 33; Netherlands from 32 to 30; Northern Ireland from 63 to 55; and Switzerland from 46 to 45. Irish Free State remained at 47 and three showed increases in the death rate Denmark from 39 to 40, Italy from 27 to 30 and Lithuania from 67 to 71. In the light of these statistics and the fact that the United States still is fourth highest on i the list, this question is perti nent: "Since Mother's day customs cus-toms decree that a white carnation carna-tion be worn in honor of a mother moth-er who has died, does it not seem that 10,000 to 16,000 white carnations, carna-tions, one for each mother who needlessly died during the last year as a penalty for motherhood, mother-hood, represent too great a toll in pain and sorrow to be paid for by sentiment alone?" Why is the maternal death rate !!''.vf """""" 'r " 1 ll ' : ' I .r r 1 ! ff ' A . - 1 . r v 1 i - J , . - ; I X j '"' If ? ' , V J r:' r.; mmm. isg "My Son!" That nppy Moment When a Mother Holds in Her Arms Her First-born. in the United States higher than it is in nearly a score of other countries? Dr. Alan F. Gutt-macher, Gutt-macher, in his recent book, "Into This Universe," gives this answer: an-swer: "Though we cannot make an exact comparison between the maternal mortality in the United States and that in European countries, we can at least make a rough comparison. All who have studied the problem agree that the rate in Holland, Norway and Sweden and Denmark is far superior to our own." It cannot be because of lack of medical progress, he commented, "for in the scientific phases of obstetrics obstet-rics America is one of the world's leaders." It must be due to a difference" in the patients themselves and differences in the way that pregnancy and labor are conducted in this country and in other lands. Melting Pot of Nations. America pays its price for being be-ing the melting pot of the nations. na-tions. "The populations of European Euro-pean countries are particularly distinguished for their purity of stock. They have bred among themselves for generations and it is believed that breeding within a narrow racial zone makes childbirth safer than the divergent diverg-ent breeding which is so obviously obvious-ly a factor of this new democracy. democ-racy. "Furthermore, the populations of some European countries are more largely rural than our own," he points out. "Our urban populations have a higher ma ternal mortality. In the United States, communities of over 10,-000 10,-000 population have 36 per cent higher death rates among mothers moth-ers than smaller communities." Dr. Guttmacher believes that prenatal care in the United States is as widespread as in Holland and Scandinavia. "Unfortunately, "Un-fortunately, the majority of pregnant preg-nant women botn in th;s country Eisa..,v..'tf:;. ....... .... : ... : . . . t&& A Prospective Mother and Father Learn How to Take Care of the Baby Before He Comes. and abroad obviously do not receive re-ceive adequate prenatal care, especially in the rural districts. Facilities to furnish the proper brand of prenatal care to every woman is one of the major current cur-rent public health problems." Dr. Guttmacher finds that one of the chief causes of America's high maternal mortality is the large number of labors in this country terminated by operation Caesarian, Caesa-rian, high forceps delivery, etc. In New York, it has been found that about 20 per cent of the deliveries de-liveries are operative. In Sweden Swe-den the interference rate is only 3.2 per cent; in Denmark, 4.5 per cent; while in Holland, in those areas where it is ascertainable, ascertain-able, it is 1 per cent. The choice of a doctor is all-important, all-important, according to Dr. Guttmacher, Gutt-macher, and the well-trained obstetric ob-stetric specialist is the best guarantee guar-antee of safety. "A normal birth is the best recommendation for an obstetrician much better than a long list of impressive operations. op-erations. A completely painless labor is often poor obstetrics. The relief of pain is humane and necessary, but its obliteration occasionally oc-casionally calls for a price in foetal and maternal mortality entirely en-tirely out of proportion to the value received." Although the maternal mortality mortal-ity record of the United States is a poor one, compared with many other countries, there are encouraging encour-aging signs that it will be improved im-proved and that the annual celebration cele-bration of Mother's day will become be-come increasingly a - symbol of safe motherhood in this country. A large part of the credit for this is due to the Maternity Center Cen-ter association in New York city which, seven or eight years ago, launched a- nation-wide educational educa-tional campaign to reduce that mortality rate. Adequate maternity care is the observation, care and instruction by doctors and nurses of mothers moth-ers from the time the woman thinks she may be pregnant until un-til she is able to resume her regular reg-ular activities and to care for her new baby, according to Hazel Ha-zel Corbin, general director of the Maternity Center association. Death Rate Reduced. Commenting on the work done by this organization which reduced re-duced the death rate among mothers to 2.2 per thousand live births as against 6.5 in the country coun-try as a whole, Miss Corbin adds: "Nurses urge each mother to register as early as possible with the private doctor or hospital hos-pital 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. ba-by. "The nurses, working with the doctors and reporting to them each time they see the mothers, visit each mother at regular intervals in-tervals during pregnancy. They help the doctor or midwife during dur-ing delivery and 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 smoothly so the mother can rest as long as necessary, and gradually, gradu-ally, as the doctor advises, resume re-sume her usual activities and increased in-creased responsibilities. "The aim of maternity care is to secure for every mother the minimum of mental and physical discomfort during pregnancy; the maximum of mental and physical fitness when the baby comes; the reward of a well baby and the knowledge to care for herself and baby." Here is the evidence that adequate ade-quate maternity care saves mothers' lives. Louis I. Dublin, Ph. D., statistician of the Metropolitan Met-ropolitan Life Insurance company, compa-ny, and an expert internationally known, examined the records of 4,726 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 with what happened to mothers in the same section of the city not receiving re-ceiving such care. This showed that those in the first group have about three times as good a chance to survive as the others. Perhaps some time, when Mother's day is generally recognized recog-nized as a symbol of safe motherhood mother-hood in this country, it will also be a day for honoring the memory memo-ry of the Southern country surgeon sur-geon who did more perhaps than any other man to make life safer for mothers. J. Marion Sims was his name and he was born in Lancaster county, S. C, on January Jan-uary 25, 1813. At the age of twenty Sims spent a year at the Charleston Medical school, then, seeking a better institution, went to the Jefferson Jef-ferson Medical college in Philadelphia. Phila-delphia. He was graduated from there among the leaders in his class in 1835 but his early career as a doctor was a failure. Finally he moved to Montgomery, Ala., where he opened a small hospital in which he made the discovery that was to give him his claim to fame. At that time the woman who had a child was in more danger than was the average soldier going go-ing into battle. Almost invariably invaria-bly childbirth resulted in certain wounds, the commonest of which was a vesico-vaginal fistula. It left the woman in a loathsome condition and sentenced her to a lifetime of misery since there was apparently no cure for it. In 1845 three of Sims' friends reported to him that they had slave women suffering from this condition. After examining one of these unfortunates, Sims was convinced that an operation could cure the fistula. But his first operation failed, as did the second and the third. In fact during a period of four years Sims performed 39 of these operations op-erations but none was successful. His determination, however, brought its reward his fortieth operation was a success! Certain now that his technique was established, Sims began trying try-ing to discover why his previous operations had failed. In each case there had been infection from his use of silk ligatures in sewing up the wounds. When he used silver wire instead there was no infection and the woman was restored to health. The name of this negro woman who had endured 40 operations in four years has not been preserved but all mothers, white and black, owe fA 1 Ac $f ' r- , tl DR. J. MARION SIMS The Country Surgeon Who Made Childbirth Easier for Mothers. a lasting debt of gratitude to her and to the surgeon who refused to be defeated. Sims had been a sick man for years. His wife urged him to mnup tn thp North in the hnne that his health might be improved. im-proved. So with a few thousand dollars he went to New York. He found great difficulty, however, in establishing a practice, even though his name was well known to other physicians. So when he proposed the idea of a hospital for women only, he found little support for it. Finally Final-ly in 1855 the Woman's Hospital of the City of New York was organized. or-ganized. But, such was the prejudice prej-udice against the idea, that he was called a quack and a humbug hum-bug and his hospital a fraud. But he persisted and it finally was accepted ac-cepted as a much-needed institution. institu-tion. In 1861 Sims made his first trip to Europe. There this "prophet without honor in his own country" coun-try" was welcomed by the leading lead-ing physicians of England, France and Belgium and some of their greatest surgeons watched with admiration his skill in performing operations. While he was in France the Empress Eugenie fell ill and Napoleon Na-poleon III sent for this great American doctor. His treatment was successful and the empress regained her health. The country coun-try doctor in South Carolina had come a long way slave women had once been his patients, now he was the honored guest of an emperor in an Old World palace. By this time Sims' renown had spread to all parts of Europe even to his native land. In 1876 the American Medical association associa-tion elected him its president. Fortune as well as fame had come to him and in 1883 he bought a site for a home in Washington. Sims planned one more trip to Europe before settling down in Washington. But as he was preparing pre-paring to sail he was delayed to perform an operation on the wife of one of America's best-known citizens. Returning from her bedside bed-side one rainy night he was taken tak-en ill with a chill and he died the following day.