The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-11-21
RELY ON MIDWlVES
THOUSANDS OF NEW WORKERS CAN
NOT AFFORD DOCTORS AT BIRTH.
Statistics just Issued Show That Out of
About Fifty Thousand Births, Over
Twenty Thousand Children Came Into
the World without Obstetric Assistance
-Lying-in Hospitals are Greatly Over
Crowded and Something Must be Done
to Care for Homeless Mothers-Some of
the Plans Recently Proposed.

New York, Nov. 20.-Out Of the 54,69l
births in this city for the year ending
October l, more than $4,000 were re
ported by midwives. This fact is de-
plored by the officers Of the Society OF
the Lying-In Hospital in the annual re-
port its board OF governors has sent to
the printer The society is DESTROYS
that SO vital a department of medical
work should not be done ''by ignorant
1nidwiyes;" and to the tnd that more
competent treatment may be provided,
il wishes to enlist public interest in tne
million dollar hospital which ]. Pierpont
Morgan has offered to supply If the so
ciety can raise an endowment fund suf-
ficient TO run it without incuring any
debt.
This hospital is said b y the report to
be needed in the city, because only
thirteen Of our hospitals will receive
cases Of childbirth 600 beds all told,
and because the Society of the Lying-ln
hospital has another object besides a
charitable one. 1t strives to provide "a
systematic course OF instruction in OBJ
stetrics, and give to the college graduate
in medicine practical instruction in a
most important branch of his profess
sion. Only two institutions, with facili-
ties for treating only 123 patients, are
now affording this help to young physi-
clans
In the present hospital of the society
there are twenty-eigTt beds. One Of the
lower wards has been fitted UP for the
graduate in medicine as a dormftory, but
only twenty-five can be accommodated
at any one time. For lack Of room only
ten nurses can be trained at time.
With an increased income and large
quarters the society could, of course,
accomplish much more educational work;
and it estimates that for patients go
beds would be none too many.
Last year, with its small capacity,
per cent OF the total number OF births
in the city became charge upon the
society. Besides 1886 applicants for
treatment, 2,792 were ATTENDED in con-
ffnement in wretched tenement dis
tUcts and in hospital wards. The medi-
cal board instructed 307 students.
The society has treated those who
could pay nothing and the most careful
inquiries were always made and re-
port kept as to the rent the patient
pays per month, the husbands wages
per week, if he is employed, etc. The
records of S34 cases show that about
6 per cent Of applicants lived in the near
tenements, twenty-four per cent occu-
pied the top floors. In the past quar-
ter the average rent paid per month
was So. and the average wages Of mus
bands per week was 81; the husbands Of
3777 were employed, and those OF 235
out OF 612 women questioned in regard
to this point were unemployed These
facts are valuable in answering those
who say that many of the society's pa
TENTS can employ and pay medical men
in their illness, the report declares. In
the new hospital patients who are able
10 pay for attendance will be required
to pay.