Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1918-03-10
Pine BInff-.-From Health Sfandpojn1 Being the Report of Survey v Experts of t4,f nf,.
 eator, Working With Local Ifetf1h Officers

tropical regions. Boarino thoso r9ct. Q ln mind, one is forced at onen fc fI,, 0 conclusion that the character of fb. pl1th attendance $ of vital hnportanr. ? anG may quite possibly ipfluence nIo 1oNndlF the nun7hel of infants daath, } oeS4fl1n@ during thniis a@a period lGI4u& T>r nloMent ta he de3ths C! fl4e t tiff babies which have ae , cuFfAd during this so-cailad "tetan- us peflod, We note twelve. or these : elgnt occurred during tn. years 1914 : 19l" and 1916. Of these c:gft. sew ;; ell had no physicians 1T attcadaace at th time of death, ana the Dra-
 sumption is that they were an it-
 tended at birth by midwivos Fe@ara
 lng tae other one the only infoga.a-
 tl3a that We have is that at the iisaa
 cf death, there Was q physician in at-
 tendance but whether CT not he WAS
 also the bath attendant We eaanot say
 Of the four remaining deatlfS which
 occurred during 1917, three are kno#n
 10 hs9e been attended at birth hy mid
 wives, one by physician
 I0.f!2 back now to the conditions which We know obtain in the practice cf these ignorant women and reflect
 Ing on their personal 'filthincss. their 1 ignorance. their sQperstitious bclis f. ana pfactlces, Oh the fact that they
 nave not the sii@htestt conception ef i the meaning of the phrase "surgicq]
 cleanliness that they do not diSin- 1 feet their hands or stel.ilize their iu
 strnments, or the thread or string.
 with which they tie tha cord is t net ] reasonable to expect that. in the cases winch they attend. any prevailing in- lection may quite easily reach this exposed assorbant surface and result seriously for the infant, if the ia-I fection ba of such 2 nature as is tisat of tetanus?
 While We would not state Gefiaisa- ly that these twelve deaths are due to tetanus, Nse knew that three of them are. and that in all but one of tn remaining, midwiYes were doubt i less in attendance. Certainly the mat ter is one for careful investigation and needs the institution of some measures well calculated to protect new born babies from such a danger ] ous malady.
 We have referred to the very ch- i vious neglect to which many of the 1 Pine Bluff babies have been subject :, ed, both at the time of birth and during the illness which eventually ]. proved fatal. In order to throw fur ! ther light on the conditions su4roan3-I 1 ing these babies, Miss Mariner has l visited the homes of many of those [ who have died in 1917, and also those I homes in which there have occurred i stillbirths during the same year. She has thus been able to obtain from | parents, near relatives, and, in many instances, from the attending phvsi- elan, information of value regarding the circumstances surrounding these premature deaths.
 Few Mothers Instructed
 We have already mentioned the rel atively small number of mothers who received any parental supervision or instruction calculated to prepare them for successful motherhood. Of the eighteen histories secured for 1917 deaths, nine were attended by mid wives and nine by physicians. Of these eighteen. only eight are shown to have had adeouate attention at the time of deoth. For the most part the environmcntal conditions of these homes were net good. There was much standing water affording breed- ing places for mosquitoes, and there were stables where flies were breed- ing prcfusely. and many privies. In fact, ten of the families were suppii- eG with privies as the only means of sewerage disposal. Protection from in- sects was only had in seven instances.
 A few extracts from some of these histories will, we believe. be illum- mating. In one case where twins were bern, one was stillborn and the other died at the age of sixteen days. The physician who attended the moth- CT had never seen her until ha was called to attend her in labor. She had no supervision, no examinations, and the attending physician states that he believes. had she been given at tention earlier, both of these babies might have been saved.
 Caesarian Operation Fails.
 The history of another still birth shows that midwife had been in at tendance for some time. When phv- sician was finally called, he found the mother in an extremely bad condition and Caesarian section was determined upon. Both mother and baby how ever, died shortly after it's completion. The attending physician states that, although these people were poor, he had attended them for long time and they knew we'll that he was willing tc give them any service that he could but that their ignorance of the need of skilful attention had led to their employment of an ignorant midwife.
 In still another case, the mother suffering from well defined kidney complications, called physician shortly before the date of her eX-