The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1940-04-18
MEDICINE IN RURAL AREA
NOT AS BAD AS PICTURED
Baltimore Physician Points Out
Serious Situation In Garrett
But Records Show Otherwise
COUNTY ABOVE AVERAGE

though perhaps not reaching the peaks
of perfection, is not nearly as bad as
is pictured in an article, on one of the
sections of the Sunday Sun, of April
IA issue, according to DR.. H. R. Du-
Puy, county health officer.
Garrett county is the only county
specifically mentioned, and DR.. Du-
Puy points out interesting statistics
which show that conditions here are
much better than in a number of other
counties of the State. The article
Sunday held pretty closely to the field
of obstetrics and was based upon
quotations of DR.. John McF. Bergland,
one of Baltimore's leading obstetri-
cans, and DR.. C. H. Peckham, obstet-
rical consultant for the State Bureau
of Child Hygiene.
DR.. Bergland feels the problems in
medical and nursing care, particularly
in the field of obstetrics will have to
be met by methods similar to those
used by the Frontier Nursing Service
in the mountains of Kentucky. Nurses
there must travel on horseback and
carry their supplies in saddlebags;
travel any hour of the night over
trails; ford streams and build fires,
etc. The Baltimore doctors feel such
"stuf" would prove a solution to a
"serious situation in the extreme
sections of the state" That is us.
Conditions In Garrett
DR.. Peckham's contribution follows
"Out in Garrett county, according to
DR.. C. H. Peckham, obstetrical consul .
tant for the State Bureau of Child
Hygiene, children not infrcquently are
born during the winter in mountain
cabins so far from the nearest settle
ment that word of the event does not
reach the outside world until the fol-
lowing spring. Roads leading to these
cabins are SO bad that neither physi-
clans nor nurses could reach the pros
pective mother by automobile In
severe weather, even if they could be
summoned
Garrett county has five public
health nurses pitted against a popula-
ton of 10000 people, of whom only a
handful are Negroes. Last year 512
babies were born in this section. Few
of the mothers had prenatal care.
No Trained Midwives
"There are no trained midwives in
(Io1.patF tn 90 +O pn pII oF
in childbirth, so those who are unabel
to secure a physician are forced to
depend on the services of a neighbor
whose ideas on the subject of clean
Illness may be extremely vague and
who is incapable Of dealing with an
emergency, or to negotiate the ordeal
alone"
Now For The Record
A scanning of the 1889 state health
records showed that of 512 births in
Garrett county Ais or 81 percent
were delivered by physicians, 70 by
midWives and Is by others, most Oh
these by election and not by necessity,
according to Dr.. DuPuy. Physicians
delivered only Is percent of the total
in Calvert, 70 percent in Caroline,
while in Wicomico county only 776
percent of the whites and 44.9 per-
cent Of the colored. In Annapolis
only 20 percent of the colored babies
are delivered by physicians. The
average for the state is SO percent
for the whites and IA percent for the
colored. 1t would be safe to say that
conditions in the Baltimore slums are
worse than anywhere in the county.
DR.. DuPuy challenged anyone to
find even the handful Of Negroes that
DR.. Peckham claimed were up here,
"There's not even a handful" he said.
81 have never seen any situation
where is was impossible to get to a
person who was really in need of help
| don't believe there is any place in
Garrett county five miles from a road
that can be Travelled at all times except
in exceptional or extreme times when
roads might be badly drifted."
Statistics also showed that of the
512 births, mothers of 275 of the
babies lover half were visited by
county nurses during pregnancy and
that 482 of them were visited after
the baby was born. These figures dc
not take into consideration those ex-
pectant mothers who were cared for by
regular physicians. "Many of these
were visited by nurses as routine work.
"If conditions were so bad here
our maternol death rate would be high,
yet in 1889 only one mother died.
There were in Allegany county, and
IL in Baltimore county,"
There are twelve physicians practic
ing in Garrett county at present and
residents living on the borders of West
Virginia, Pennsylvania and Allegany
county call on various physicians in
those areas. There are also 10
licensed midwives in the county and
two of the five county nurses are
trained as both nurses and midwives,
DR.. DuPuy stated.
Five nurses pitted against 10000
people" as DR.. Peckhsm says, makes