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Facilities for wet-nursing
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PUBLIC HEALTH,
In my o w n town, for example, two-thirds o f the infants attend the welfare centres regularly. If a baby week is ordained, the doctors and health visitors have to be diverted from their routine functions, to organise and run the publicity stunt, for voluntary effort, being unskilled, requires close control and direction. W h a t is the result ? The continuity of attendances is interrupted, and in m a n y cases is only resumed long" after the flare-up. Home visiting, too, is greatly interfered with, and altogether we lose both on the swings and the roundabouts. The exhibition, however good a n d painstakingly thougIit out it may be, can only prove at best a poor attraction, visited mainly by loyalists who are themselves of the converted, and its preparation is a source of much worry and overwork for those concerned. The health week handbooks that have been shown to me with much pride by their producers have, in every instance, contained advertisements that violated our most fundamental principles. There is a great demand, if given any encouragement, for addresses and lectures by the medical officer of health and his staff, to everY description of society and organisation of young people and adults, whether religious, Political, scholastic, athletic, industrial, or purely social or philanthropic, while the local press is always eager for signed articles on health matters, if written in attractive style, a n d t h e s e offer channels that will take all our time t o fill adequately, while continuing the routine work of the department, which of itself is the surest and steadiest means of educating the public. No, Mr. Editor, " stunts " are usually a great waste of time and energy, and are apt to become a flashy bit of display to conceal deficiencies in essential undertakings. I am, Sir, Yours faithfully, HAROLD KERR. Health Department, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. February 16th, 1927.
FACILITIES FOR WET-NURSING. To the Editor of Public Health. S i r , - - W e t - n u r s i n g has long been advocated, and was in former times employed as the most physiological method of " artificial " feeding
MARCH, 1927.
in a case where the mother's breast milk had failed, or was for other reasons not available. Ttie practice has, however, fallen into disuse in the last few decades, for reasons into which I need not enter, and it is an anomalous circumstance, that in spite of the hold which maternity and child welfare has gained o n popular ,opinion in this country, and in spite of the almost universal advocacy of breast feeding by maternity and child welfare medical officers, no general attempt appears to have been made either by the enlightened public or by the medical profession tO seize hold of the readiest means of putting this principle into practice for the benefit of difficult cases. There must in London, and in all large and congested areas where maternity hospitals, poor law infirmaries, women's homes and hostels, and maternity and child welfare centres serve public and, in particular, maternal needs, exist facilities for providing a system of wet-nursing which, conducted under proper precautions, would be o f undoubted benefit to all engaged in the problem of rearing delicate and difficult infants. If any metropolitan medical officers o f health with municipal clinics or hostels in their area, medical officers of individual infant centres, or physicians to infant or maternity wards, who are interested in this idea, and would be willing to co-operate in the organisation of such a system, would send in their names to this address, a meeting would be arranged at which the possibilities, financial and otherwise, could be discussed. I am Sir, Yours faithfully, MARGARET EMSLII~,H o~. Secretary, Maternity and Child Welfare Group. 22, YVimpole Street, London, W.1. February 18th, 1927.
DR. J. B. FERGUSON, formerly of Smethwick, and at present Medical Officer o f Health for Bethnal Green, is resigning that position on being appointed Medical Superintendent of the Tuberculosis Division of the Government of Victoria, Australia. DR. MEREDITH YOUNG, county Medical Officer of Health for Cheshire, has been reappointed Lecturer i n School Hygiene in the University of Manchester, for a period of three years.
PUBLIC HEALTH,
In my o w n town, for example, two-thirds o f the infants attend the welfare centres regularly. If a baby week is ordained, the doctors and health visitors have to be diverted from their routine functions, to organise and run the publicity stunt, for voluntary effort, being unskilled, requires close control and direction. W h a t is the result ? The continuity of attendances is interrupted, and in m a n y cases is only resumed long" after the flare-up. Home visiting, too, is greatly interfered with, and altogether we lose both on the swings and the roundabouts. The exhibition, however good a n d painstakingly thougIit out it may be, can only prove at best a poor attraction, visited mainly by loyalists who are themselves of the converted, and its preparation is a source of much worry and overwork for those concerned. The health week handbooks that have been shown to me with much pride by their producers have, in every instance, contained advertisements that violated our most fundamental principles. There is a great demand, if given any encouragement, for addresses and lectures by the medical officer of health and his staff, to everY description of society and organisation of young people and adults, whether religious, Political, scholastic, athletic, industrial, or purely social or philanthropic, while the local press is always eager for signed articles on health matters, if written in attractive style, a n d t h e s e offer channels that will take all our time t o fill adequately, while continuing the routine work of the department, which of itself is the surest and steadiest means of educating the public. No, Mr. Editor, " stunts " are usually a great waste of time and energy, and are apt to become a flashy bit of display to conceal deficiencies in essential undertakings. I am, Sir, Yours faithfully, HAROLD KERR. Health Department, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. February 16th, 1927.
FACILITIES FOR WET-NURSING. To the Editor of Public Health. S i r , - - W e t - n u r s i n g has long been advocated, and was in former times employed as the most physiological method of " artificial " feeding
MARCH, 1927.
in a case where the mother's breast milk had failed, or was for other reasons not available. Ttie practice has, however, fallen into disuse in the last few decades, for reasons into which I need not enter, and it is an anomalous circumstance, that in spite of the hold which maternity and child welfare has gained o n popular ,opinion in this country, and in spite of the almost universal advocacy of breast feeding by maternity and child welfare medical officers, no general attempt appears to have been made either by the enlightened public or by the medical profession tO seize hold of the readiest means of putting this principle into practice for the benefit of difficult cases. There must in London, and in all large and congested areas where maternity hospitals, poor law infirmaries, women's homes and hostels, and maternity and child welfare centres serve public and, in particular, maternal needs, exist facilities for providing a system of wet-nursing which, conducted under proper precautions, would be o f undoubted benefit to all engaged in the problem of rearing delicate and difficult infants. If any metropolitan medical officers o f health with municipal clinics or hostels in their area, medical officers of individual infant centres, or physicians to infant or maternity wards, who are interested in this idea, and would be willing to co-operate in the organisation of such a system, would send in their names to this address, a meeting would be arranged at which the possibilities, financial and otherwise, could be discussed. I am Sir, Yours faithfully, MARGARET EMSLII~,H o~. Secretary, Maternity and Child Welfare Group. 22, YVimpole Street, London, W.1. February 18th, 1927.
DR. J. B. FERGUSON, formerly of Smethwick, and at present Medical Officer o f Health for Bethnal Green, is resigning that position on being appointed Medical Superintendent of the Tuberculosis Division of the Government of Victoria, Australia. DR. MEREDITH YOUNG, county Medical Officer of Health for Cheshire, has been reappointed Lecturer i n School Hygiene in the University of Manchester, for a period of three years.