The Clubwomen Take On the Midwives

A Happy New Year to the Club Women of Washington!

I am happy to announce the exact date of the "Baby Week" campaign for 1917. This year we will celebrate in May, from the 1st to the 6th, inclusive. As last year, we shall cooperate with the General Federation Chairman of Health, Civics and Home Economics, together with the Federal Children's Bureau. An outline of the campaign will be given in the January number of the General Federation Magazine.

Early in February a meeting of the Health, Civics and Home Economics chairmen, together with the president, Mrs. Solon Shedd, will be held in Seattle for the purpose of planning a comprehensive campaign for "Better Babies" of this state.

As the legislature is about to convene, your attention is called to the legislative measures fostered by the Health Committee — namely the Full-Time-Health-Officer Bill and the Regulation of the Practice of Midwifery in this state. The last named bill is the direct result of the Baby Campaign of last spring, and we ask all those interested in constructive legislation to urge your legislators in your respective districts to support the bill. The bill provides for the examination and licensing of applicants, and provides penalties for the violation thereof.

The time has come when the problem of the midwife in this state must be reckoned with. In the past the responsibility for the midwife has been assumed or ignored in a half-hearted manner. Except in rare cases, ignorant, untrained and incompetent midwives are the rule, and some of the results of their incompetence are unnecessary deaths and blindness of infants, avoidable invalidism, suffering and death of the mothers.

The bill as drawn is a protection to the new born babe. This bill was published in full in the W.S.F.W.C. October bulletin, was also distributed widely at the convention in Everett last June, and received the endorsement of the Federation.

The Full-Time-Health-Officer bill is a meritorious measure and should receive the support it deserves. It provides for dividing the state into fifteen districts and appointing a health officer for each district, one who will devote his entire time to public health work.

Washington shows the lowest death rate of any state in the Union, but if we are to maintain this enviable record, we must necessarily be vigilant, so this bill also provides for the entire time of sufficient men and women to carry on the work. It is unnecessary here to mention the splendid work of the public health nurse; she has come to stay. As an illustration of her financial value, your attention is called to the fact that the Metropolitan Life Insurance company is spending more money in the employment of nurses to visit their industrial policy holders in this state than the State of Washington spends for her entire public health work.

Great good would result from such a law, and you, the club women of Washington, are to give your hearty support to both of these constructive measures.

Very sincerely yours, Mrs. N. S. McCready, Chairman Health W.S.F.W.C.