The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-01-07
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN, Director.
Washington, d. c.
10 EDUCATE MOTHERS.

Washington. d. c., Jan. A well
fare worker making survey in
western county stopped at a log shack.
-Four lanky children popped out. fol-
lowed by the mother with a twelve
months-old baby. After diplomatical-
ly admirine the baby, the visitor VEN
tured to ask:
And what do you feed them?"
| WELL" said the mother, II always
begin feeding my babies by giving
them a taste of everything on the ia
BILE. 1 can judge pretty well by the
faces they make whether it is good
for them"
Further conversation showed that
I this particular housewife. a foreigner.
liked highly seasoned foods, and had
for months tested the baby's appetite
on meat, cheese and cabbage.
This mother was typical of millions
of American mothers. She had no
| idea how to feed and care for a child
She was not a fit guardian for a future
| American citizen.
The existence of millions of ignor-
ant mothers has led to the introduce
ton of a bill in the house and senate,
with administrative backing, which
has for its purpose to create federal
system of educating mothers in the
care of their children.
Two million dollars would be appro-
priated by the federal government for
the first year, and the states would put
lup a similar sum. the amount being
] apDOrtlOneQ dcCOTdlQS 10
Later the fund would be increased un-
! til it became a $4.O00,00O appropria-
ton from the government, to be dou-
bled by the states.
| This money would be used to pay
| public health nurses to instruct moth
| ers in hygiene and care of infants,
| for consultation centers, and for medi-
| cal and nursing care for mothers and
children, at home or in hospitals.
The children's bureau of the labor
4 &c fv3fA Cd fo
| bill. The bureau has kept so closely
! in touch with records of infant NOR
talIty and disease that it understands
| better than any other organization the
need for federal aid. OF sixteen i'm
| portant countries, says the children's
bureau, thirteen have a lower mater
nal death rate than the United States,
| while six have lower infant death
rate. About $4,000 mothers and $780,
900 babies die every year in this coun-
| try. A large percentage of these
deaths are preventable.
A woman will use directions to cut
her children's clothes. She will fol-
low a recipe to make cake. But
when 1t comes to feeding, bathing,
! and doctoring a baby, she is inclined
to fall back on the customs of her
| ancestors and trust to instinct. This
| is true, the childrens bureau has
| found. not only in poor, illiterate
| mouse hOlQS, 0uL IN the homes OF the
| wealthy as well.
Grandmother raised a family by
| the old fashioned methods says the
young mother, never stopping to con-
| slider that out of grandmother's
eleven children only five grew up, and
| all that lived long enough had every
disease known to childhood.
| These mothers of the better class
usually think that public instruction
or the visits of a public health nurse
is form of charity. To get them to
| understand that government aid in
child welfare is no more matter of
charity than the public school sys-
| tenn is one of the problems confront
| ing the children's bureau and health
officials of states engaged in child
welfare work.
| The states find that once the moth
ers are interested and learn the diff
| ference between science and the re-
| suits OF instructive care they are rapid
ly converted and are anxious to learn
all they can about the care of their
children The main trouble is that
the service rendered is slight in COM
parison with the need. Even the pro-
posed federal and state appropriation
will only begin to pay for the doctors,
sary to save the thousands of lives
lost yearly thru ignorance and lack
of care.
Until the funds provided are large
enough, the special attention of the
| government is necessarily turned to-
fothers who cannot obtain adequate
medical attention from private physi-
clans and nurses.
/ We are more or less familiar with
the stories of city babies dying from
heat in crowded tenements, or freezing
to death from exposure. We know
less of the hardships which babies and
mothers have to bear in remote dis
tricts. Forty-five miles to the nearest
doctor is no uncommon situation in
our boundlesS west. Often the roads
are so poor that a doctor cannot reach
a patient at all.
In one case, the doctor travelled
twelve miles thru drifting snow to see
a child in commissions. After riding
several hours, he lost his way in the
night and had to return to town. The
next morning he set out again and
i reached the home by o'clock but
the baby was dead.
In homes like these, several miles
from q telephone or postoffice, the
family is shut off from assistance thru
the winter. One mother on q north
western ranch sent to the nearest
town for a prescription for her baby.
It was two months before it came, for
the roads were in such a condition
that no mail could be sent over them.
In such districts a public health nurse
is vital necessity.
Nurses selected to care for mothers
and infants, according to standards of
the chi1dren's bureau, should not only
be graduates with hospital training
but should have had practical expert
ence in public health work. A poor
nurse is worse than none at all, in the
opinion of the bureaus experts. They
>. Observation-Disclosures
:SThAGoo~-raNI