Milford News | 1939-11-09 | Page 3 | Maternity Death Rate could be Cut in Half

Maternity Death Rate Could Be Cut in Half The lives of 6.000 mothers could be saved every year by prompt and proper medical care, Dr. Phillip R. Williams, of Philadelphia, said recently re-cently at the first American Congress Con-gress of Obstetrics and Gynacol-ogy. Gynacol-ogy. The maternal death rate in the United States is lower than ever before be-fore in history, but it is still "disgracefully "dis-gracefully high" in view of the present pres-ent knowledge of medical men. Dr. Williams said. The death rate of mothers declined de-clined from 57 out of every 10,000 during 1936 to 49 out of every 10.000 in 1937. Dr. Williams pointed out, however, that this might be cut in half if physicians made use of all available knowledge and if prospective pros-pective mothers asked for medical med-ical attention early. In addition, the lives of about half of the babies who die in childbirth or soon after might be saved by application of medical methods which are not now generally applied. ap-plied. During 1937, the last year for which statistics are available, 119,931 babies died.