, 1884-09-13

vanced ages. To him also it was doubtful
whether the Midwives could make a living
unless there was an Ordinance to empower
the Government to take measures that
would secure their pay from labourers; it
would, he hoped, noe last long before q
Draft of such Ordinance comes before the
Council.
9th Crownmember (KalmerJ would beg
to answer a little more fully the remarks
from the honorable 4th Member for Chris
tiansted's Country District (Raphael). He
found those remarks very pertinent, and it
seemed to him most natural that such en-
quiries were made; he was glad they had
been put, The honorable Member is per
fectly right; children do not die particular
~ frequently here during the first term OF
their life: i'll that respect he would go so
far as to say, that if Midwives are only to
be used during the time of child bed or for
the first il days of the child's life, he
should have hesitated to recommend such
a large institution as that we are about to
establish here; but he looked upon the in
stitutiOn we are about to inaugurate as OF
n much larger scope. The births here are
comparatively easy, and their course atu
raj for the reason of births it would not
be necessary to have here 9 NidWives.
But the mortality among infants is so fear
fully great, that this requires all the mea-
sureS possible to repreSS or prevent it. The
reason of that fearful mortality, which oC-
ours not so much among children III the
first 3 months of their life, as later on in
life, is due in the first place to gross ignO-
rance prevailing as to the proper feeding
of little children, and secondly to the ne
glect evinced on the part of mothers for
their offspring and if we are TO leave mat.
tiers as they have been heretofore, mostly
i'll the hands of |unskilled and ignorant
women, it would be deplOrable. 1t
would not be rs regards women i'll child
bed that we would then be running any
much greater risk or danger than hitherto,
but it would be in regard to children that
we would be running an risk, an
unbelievable risk, And this is what we
are trying to avoid. 1t is, then, the inten-
ton that MidwivGS shall teach the mothers
how to treat their children, not only after
birth but for a time atter,-to watch over
the children and by all legal and moral
means at their disposal to try to teach and
to persuade the labouring population into
better knowledge and treatment of and
better conduct toward their children. This,
then, is the chief object of the organisation
about to be inaugurated; and he WAS glad
to be able to add, that it is by far not the
intention that the work Of the MidWiveS
shall be confined only to the first days of
the child'S life after birth but iG shall be
the duty of the Midwives TO look after
children during the first couple years of
their life, to instruct and guide the mothers
and to have an eye with both mother and
children in general to exercise a superyi.
sion of them and to give admonitionS
whenever needed.-With regard to the
question of payment for midwives, he
could agree with the honorable Member i'll
his view expressed today; he knew that
hitherto it had proved most difficult for
midwiyes to get in their small and legal
fees. In this respect His Excellency the
Governor had today stated that an
Ordinance will shortly be brought before
the Council for enforcing the legal fees
to Midwives, and he hOpedthe means would
prove adequate for securing the midwives
their just fees. AS the question of pay
ment had now come up, he might be allow
ed to say a few words regarding travelling
expenses as we'll known they have been
allowed no travelling expenses; but he
would only observe that 2 Of the Mid
wives in the towns in this respect are far
worse off than the others in town, WHO
have no country district to attend and
hence need no conveyance, and particular
ly as regards the Midwife having the East
End under her charge, where on the ave-
rage there are II births yearly, it will be a
very costly affair for that Midwife to keep
y conveyance, which she would otherwise
not keep. He would in conclusion beg to
IL ~ l. l--