The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1922-07-06
CARE OF MOTHERS AND BABIES

itself.
CARE OF MOTHERS AND BABIES
The plea of the opposition to the
Sheppard-Towner act that are of
mothers and babies is the business
of individual states has no stronger
supporter that Mrs. Minnie Fisher
Cunningham, executive secretary of
the National League of Women Vot-
ers. Mrs. Cunningham is quite I'M
able to see how anybody could ever
have supposed that it isn't. The state
which accepts the governments offer
of expert advice on the subject is
merely accepting expert advice on
the conduct Of its own business
doing exactly what the farmer does
when he writes to the Department of
Agriculture for the latest pamphlet
on soil or grains; what the housewife
does when she gets federal printed
aid in preserving vegetables. Mrs.
Cunningham says:
'The Sheppard-Towner idea is that
SONCllllllCllG CApOlt0 pllOOlu NC 1Ci1lOO
in by states in regard to are of
mothers and babies just as they are
called in when other matters are to
the fore, and the use of the experts
the government selects is a broaden
ing Of the work of education for
which hospitals and physicians have
so long been fighting. Prenatal care
has reduced the maternal d~eath-rate
of one large Brooklyn hospital to
one-tenth the rate in general city
practice. Women are taught there,
first Of all, the Importance of con-
sulting physicians early in pregnancy
and of following their advice, which
means frequent visits. Small town
and country practitioners know the
tragedies which result from ignorance
of this necessity. They are used to
being sent for when it is too late
when complications early consultation
could have avoided cost the life OF
mother and child. Every well-trained
physician halls with heartfelt relief
a plan which will lessen that appall-
ing ignorance and bring to the coun-
trv women some of the help the
clinic-visiting city woman enjoys.
The discussion Of the Sheppard
Towner Act provisions has brought
to her physician many a woman who
five years ago would have been sacrl-
feed to ignorance and to old-wlves'
advice.
"No one supposes that the new
plan is to take over the work OF
either the physician or the county
nurse. The very small sum set aside
for each state means that education
in the real need for prenatal care
will begin to be nation wide, not con-
fined to cities; that the state boards
of health will give the benefit Of eX-
pert advice in ways and means OF
lessening unnecessary agony and pre-
ventable death.
sIt is the province of the federal
government to stimulate state health
work and to cooperate with state
organizations. The conquering OF yell
low fever and bubonic plague prove
what that cooperation The
Sheppard-Towner act means just
such stimulation and cooperation
for women and children, and the
state which does not accept its pro
,iy.on VIII. have difficu-t " in explain
il.s en- what grounds lis refusal IS
based. The,e is no cry 'ha; The d.
na,tment Of Agriculture dictates to
any farmer how he shtli farm his
i1nc. 1t merely puts trtiled men
and minds at his disposal. The Shep-
pard-Towner plan does precisely the
thing for the he 18th depart
n o,ts which are everywhere waking
to the need of such help.
'It is well to help the farmer. The
country admits it. In the heart
of the farmers wife who sees the
added health of stock, the increased
Weld of grain, under Department OF
Agriculture advice, there is a visit
full hope that the helping hard will
be extended to her, too. A health
center somewhere within reach-even
50 small a beginning of a health CEN
ter as the Sheppard-Towner plan pro-
vides=the advice of a person who
knows. the certainty that going to
her physician early and repeatedly