The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-03-19
LARGE SECTIONS OF COUNTRY ARE
 WITHOUT DOCTORS
Much Suffering Is Felt in Some Sections on Account of Lack of
 Physicians.

How the other half is born cha1- lenges attention. Inaccessibility of medical and nursing aid, according to studies of maternity care in rural areas of states made by the Chill drens Bureau of the U. S. Department of Labor, is responsible for much suffering and even death.
 In a northw estern county and in a southeastern county there were near ly twice as many persons per physi elan as the average for the United States; in a southern mountain county there were four times as many. A vast area in the far northwest, larger than theo state of Connecticut, was served by three registered doctors. Moreover, most of the doctors in every rural county were located at the county seat, while the remoter parts of the county were entirely without medical service.
 More than one-third of the fanni1- ies in the far northwestern county studied were 20 miles or more from the nearest doctor, 10 being from 50 to 100 miles away. In a southern county more than one-fourth of the families were 10 miles or more from a doctor, and in another county 25 miles was not an uncommon dis
 Actual miles were not the sole ob- stacle to obtaining medical help al confinement Rough roads, crossed by rivers; slippery mountain trails, al- most impossible at best, become total. ly so under bad weather conditions As a result doctors arrive from severa. minutes to 24 hours too late to de- liver their patients. Many families, discouraged by repeated failures to get doctor in time, are tempted to do without one altogether; to others the thought of q doctor does not oc- cur unless the patients condition be- comes critical.
 In a. southern county only 68 our of 16O mothers had a doctor at their last confinement; in only out of 66 confinement cases in a northern coun- ty was a physician secured; and in still another more than two-thirds of the women did not have a physician when their babies were born. Three were entirely alone, and 46 had only their husbands in attendance.
 Women would in many cases leave home for confinement if hospita were within reach. But one 5,F
 mile area had no hospital; neither had the southern mountain county. Reaching a hospital meant a journey of several days by wagon trail, or one by stage across the toughest of moun- tain roads.
 In large number of cases the mother has no nursing care except that given by an untrained hired girl, relative, or a neighbor. Figures gathered from five rural counties are small in number but appalling in sig nificance: Forty-five out of S9 babies; p out of 2S; 12 out of 15; 10 out of 16; 10 out of IA babies died Before They Were Month Old.
 These figures are further corrob- orated by the Bureau of the Census which gives the increase in infant mortality rates from premature birth and injuries at birth. The first has increased from 17.5 in 1910 to 21. i in 1917, and the other from 3.2 in 1910 to 4.6 in 1917. These excessive rates are due to the condition of the mother and indicate plainly that motherhood is not receiving the pro- 1 lection it needs. As the Census re- port itself says: These increases should serve as food for thought"