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PROTECTION OF MATERNITY.
STATEMENT OF ELIZABETH G. FOX, VICE PRESIDENT NA
TIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR PUBLIC HEALTH NURSING.
Miss Fox. I am speaking from a knowledge of public health nursing
gained from eight years’ experience as a public health nurse and from
three years’ experience as executive officer in charge of 1,300 public
health nurses and as vice president of the National Organization for
Public Health Nursing, which has a membership of between four and
five thousand public health nurses.
As much of the field work provided in the Sheppard-Towner bill
will be performed by public health nurses, it is fair to suppose that
it will be done according to the high standards and in the thorough
manner now prevailing among public health nurses, some of whom
are engaged in just the kind of work which is anticipated in this bill.
There are now something like 10,000 public health nurses at work in
the United States. Probably 75 per cent, if not more, of these
nurses are working in cities and towns. Not over 25 per cent are
working in the counties and rural districts. Some of them are
employed through State and municipal funds; many of them are
employed from private funds. Many of them are carrying on some
measure of prenatal, maternity, and postnatal nursing. In those
cities where this service is adequately cared for by well-established
staffs, it will not be necessary to draw upon State and Federal funds.
There are hundreds of towns and more than two-thirds of our counties,
however, which have no such service at present, largely because of
lack of funds.
Careful studies indicate that the majority of the mothers in such
towns and counties are without supervision during their pregnancy,
have only one or two visits from a physician during the lying-in
period, and are again without medical supervision during the first year
or two of the baby’s life. Shortage of doctors, economic conditions,
and lack of realization of the importance of supervision on the part
of the mother partly account for this situation.
It has been said by some of the opponents of this bill that maternal
instinct and general intelligence are sufficient to guide a mother safely
through pregnancy and in the care of her babies. Those who are
familiar with the modern science of medicine and hygiene realize the
fallacy of such an argument. The mothers themselves throughout
the land are the first to say that they do not know how to care for
themselves or their babies scientifically, and need and desire help from
those who have been scientificlaly trained. Unless the Sheppard-
Towner bill goes through the mothers in great areas of our country
will have to remain without professional guidance and supervision
for some time to come.
It has been said that this bill will send large numbers of untrained
individuals into private homes. Public-health nurses can not be
called untrained individuals. They are highly trained in the allevia
tion and prevention of sickness, the teaching of hygiene, and the
preservation of health. The Children’s Bureau will undoubtedly
establish high standards of qualification and of supervision for these
workers. Dr. Livingston Farrand has said, ‘‘The entire modern
health movement depends upon the adequate development of the
visiting nurse.”