J5'J MEDICAL SECTION 



Dominion on the domestic aspect of the care and 

 safeguarding of mother and child. The newspaper 

 Press of the whole country has played a leading role 

 in the movement, helping and encouraging us, 

 endorsing and advocating our work and publishing at 

 the present time some 200,000 copies of a weekly 

 article under the heading " Our Babies' Column," 

 supplied by the Society to fifty newspapers, and 

 reaching practically every home in the Dominion- 

 penetrating indeed the remotest back-blocks, beyond 

 the reach of doctor or nurse. 



The Society came into definite corporate existence 

 only six years ago. The work was then entered into 

 with great spirit by a committee of twenty-five earnest 

 women in Dunedin, drawn from all creeds and classes, 

 who felt that a stand ought to be made for rational 

 education, help and training in the simple essentials 

 for healthy normal motherhood and babyhood. 



For about two years previous to this, some of us 

 had been carrying on a systematic pioneering educa- 

 tional health mission among parents of all classes in 

 Dunedin, by means of lectures, newspaper articles 

 and personal visitation of homes by a specially trained 

 nurse. The nurse was on the telephone and her 

 services were available on application free to any 

 mother who wanted to know how to do the best for 

 herself and her child. The help and teaching of the 

 nurse were soon sought by mothers of all classes, in 

 the spirit in which they were tendered, not as a 

 charity, but as a measure of free education in a matter 

 of vital importance to the whole community. 



From first to last main attention has been directed 

 to the essential requirements as regards fresh air, 

 sunlight, cleanliness, proper feeding, exercise, rest, 

 sleep, regular habits, &c., and how to attain these in 

 the home in the simplest and best way. As regards 

 nutrition, we emphasize the paramount importance of 

 breast-feeding for both mother and child ; failing this 



