Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1925-11-28
Public Health Nurse
And Child Hygiene
Mothers And Children OF State
Helped To Health By Her Ad-
vice And Illustrations

Asked to outline the duties of the
Public Health Nurses in Maryland in
caring for mothers and young chill
dren, Miss c.. Ethel Monroe, the State
Advisory Nurse, turned to circular
from the Bureau of Child Hygiene
that was lying on her desk and quoted
''The Bureau of Child Hygiene of the
State Department of Health was or
gained to help Maryland mothers and
children keep well, because many
mothers die unnecessarily from some
complication of childbirth; many ba-
bies and young children die each year
from preventable diseases, and many
children enter school each year hand
icapped by some physical defect that
could have been prevented or cor
rected. The Bureau works with and
through the Local Health officer and
the Public Health nurse"
"The Public Health Nurse" Miss
Monroe continued, usually gives a
large share of her time to activities
in furtherance of these aims of the
Bureau of Child Hygiene. To help
prevent complications of child birth,
the nurse visits every expectant moth
err who is referred to her. She urges
her to place herself under the super
vision of her physician very early in
the prenatal period, and she helps her
make the necessary preparations for
her confinement. She also advises in
regard to the outfit for the baby.
Owing to extended territory that
has to be covered by each nurse and
to the variety of duties of the Public
Health Nurses, it is impossible for
them to give nursing care to the
mother during her confinement or to
do the daily bedside nursing follow
ing the arrival of the baby. No phase
of the nurses work is more important
than the help she is able to give the
mother-to-be, and it is hoped that each
year more and more Of this can be
done.
'In a number of counties, the nurse
receives regularly from the local Reg
istrars, the names Of the new born
babies, so that she may visit each
mother and help and advise her in
the care of the young baby, if the
family physician requests it.
Under the direction of the Deputy
State Health officer, the Public Health
nurse arranges for the We'll Baby
Conferences and the child health
conferences that are held at regular
intervals in each county, and assists
the examining physician. These con-
ferences are for we'll babies, as sick
babies are supposed to be already I'M
der the care of a physician. Children
brought to the conferences who are
found to be in need of special care
are referred to their family physician.
After the conferences, the nurse visits
the parents of the children that need
such follow-up care and offers her as
sistance in getting the corrective work
done.
"In her visits in the homes, the
Public Health nurse can render fur
Their service to young mothers, and
incidently to the entire community
by showing the parents how to follow
the doctors directions in his efforts to
prevent the spread of communicable
diseases and particularly the social
ed children's diseases. 1t is common
thing for nurse to hear mother
say Johnny has the measles and am
letting all the children play in his
room so that they can all have it at
once and have it over All wrong, of
course. But the nurse often has to
use all her powers of persuasion to
make the mothers realize that it is
not necessary for all the children to
have these diseases if proper precau-
tons are taken to prevent their
spread.
Gin the field of Child Hygiene as in
all other phases of her work, the Pub
lie Health nurse finds much to do a.
long health education lines, holding
classes for mothers, organizing little
mothers clubs, giving talks and dis
tributing literature. In her Child Hy-
giene program, the nurse finds some
of her most constructive work."
''Twenty-three Ways of Being
a Cat" pointed out by Alice M.
Williamson, who gives "a word
picture of the varieties and shad-
ings in Woman and Man in Sun