Evening star., 1935-06-23
COLUMBIA CLINIC
PLAYS VITAL ROLE
Wages Vigorous Campaign
to Cut Infant Mortality
Rate Here.

The infant mortality rate in Wash
ington last week was the second
highest of cities along the Eastern
seaboard, and only 10 of all the cities
for which the Bureau of the Census
gathers figures had higher rates than
the Capital.
Only five cities had a higher in
fant mortality rate than Washington
for the year 1888, and only five Of
comparable size had as high still
birth rate as Washington.
The rate of death among the chill
dren less than l year old has be-
come one of the most critical prob
lens facing modern medicine. Sur
geonS, governments and citizens have
organized to combat it and lower 1t.
Improved and expanded hospital
facilities and educational opportunity
for expectant mothers are two of the
most needed methods of lessening the
percentage of babies who die in their
first year, the most crucial year of
their existence.
Clinic Wages Campaign.
In Washington, the Infant Clinic
of Columbia Hospital for Women is
waging more strongly than any other
institution a campaign aimed at max
ing available to every mother or ex-
pectant mother in the city informa-
ton and care that will insure a
stronger, healthier baby, one more
likely to survive the first few months
Of its harsh existence.
Last year patients made 1906
visits to the clinic. They were given
physical examinations. They were
taught the responsibilities, duties and
general physiological problems at
tendant upon motherhood.
The poorest were provided with
transportation to and from the clinic.
Some were given layettes if their
finances prevented their purchasing
them. They were provided with maga-
zines to while away their empty
hours.
The social service department of
the clinic, which includes one full
time worker and % part-time volun-
teer workers, paid 2,213 calls to the
homes of patients registered to see
that the lessons taught at the clinic
we're followed religiously.
The effect of this endeavor is to
flt the mother properly for the birth
of the child and to fit her to care for
the baby during its tender initiation
into the ways of its separate existence.
The most marked result is an instant
decrease in the infant mortality and
the rate of stillbirth among the group
so taught and supervised.
The clinic is run by Miss Linda
Woods under the direction of the
Women's Board of Columbia Hospital,
headed by Mrs. Sydney Taliaferro, to
whom the clinics recent amazing
progress is due. Its money comes
from the Community Chest, the
Thrift Shop, assessments against
members of the board and from the
small fees asked, when payable, from
the patients who come to the clinic.
Facilities Increased.
The clinic in 1920 was a two-room
establishment under one worker. To-
day it has eight rooms, fitted with
baby scales, baby baskets, beds, clos
cts, medical apparatus and other
equipment necessary to perform Its
function.
Moreover, the clinic attempts to do
far more than merely provide for
bare care and instruction of the
patients. Mrs. Taliaferro said in her
report to the Thrift Shop:
THE social service equipment has
included a supply of dishes, glasses,
silver, etc. for serving refreshments
at mothers club meetings; demon
stration clothes; pictures, posters and
magazines for teaching and enter
, tanning the mothers; toys to enter
tain the children while their mothers
are taken care of in the clinic; nine
window boxes filled with flowers each
year, and flowers for the clinic rooms;
curtains for the windows; rubber door
mats, social service stationary.
''Layettes have been furnished to
100 mothers. Christmas tree decora-
tons have been arranged for the
clinic. Boxes and baskets of food,
clothes, toys and sweets have been
provided for needy families of patients
who were not taken care of by other
organizations each Christmas. A car
is maintained for the social service
department"
The clinic makes an heroic effort to
attract every poor prospective mother
who could not afford placing herself
= : = = : - Julius La