The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-04-12
Would Supplant Strange
 Beliefs On Child Birth

New York. April 12-To aid in dis polling one of the most tenacious group of superstitious beliefs the world has ever known those per ta1ning to child birth-the Maternity Centre Association is inaugurating in New York a campaign for the benefit of the entire country,
 Through education it is hoped to aUquaint mothers everywhere with the real factors determining the life and health of mothers and infants Through research more facts will be given to science for the benefit of women preparing for m motherhood.
 The Maternity Centre Association is regarded as a leading authority in the United States on matters of ma tern1ty protection. The routine. or method of nursing procedure. it has worked out is widely accepted as the standard Miss Mabel Choate, daugh- ter of the late Joseph H. Choate, is president of the association. Practt- cally every large hospital in New ork county is represented in it's medical advisory board.
 To Fight Superstition.
 The Supers-itiOnS surrounding ma ternity are dangerous, the association feels, because they affect mother and baby lives. Thousands of women in this country, it is said, are relying upon tales that have come down from the Middle Ages. These beliefs must be supplanted by knowledge if the ap-
 
 in the United States is to be cut down
 Take the old idea of marking a baby through an unsatfsfied craving on the part of the mother. If a woman longs for strawberries, for eX- ample and does not get them. the supposition is that the child will be born with a strawberry mark.
 Scientists declare there is no rela- tion between cravings and birth marks They dc assert however that worry and fear and anger react most unfavorably upon the baby that is to be. Fright, for example, the associa,- tion's authorities say, might precipi- tate matters prematurely, or worry might tend to impoverish the baby's food supply. If we are to give the child fair start in life the thoughts of many thousands of mothers must be directed into right channels. The care the mother takes of herself must be approved by science, not by su- perStition.
 Some of Beliefs.
 Strange, indeed, are the beliefs the associations nurses encounter in their field work. There is the one that if the expectant mother steps over a gaspipe the child will be born with a cord around it's neck. There is the other belief that if she passes a man chopping wood the baby will have a harelip.
 When one of the nurses makes a complimentary remark about the new baby generally the mother hastens to ward off bad luck by saying: God bless it; thank God; knock wood; God save the mark" But the woman often has taken no thought to ward off sickness or even death by proper diet, proper clothing and proper med ical and nursing care.
 Lack of proper care is directly re- sponsbb1e for the death of most of the 23,000 mothers who die every year in the United States from causes in cident to maternity and for the hope less crippling of many thousands more. One hundred thousand babies die each year in this country under the age of one month. Another 100,- 900 are stillb Nearly all of these 100000 deaths are preventable.
 A Task of Education.
 The great task of the association is one of education. First, the mothers must be impressed with the need for proper medical and surgical care dur