NURSING STATISTICS DERIVED FROM THE STUDY OF 

 THE INFANCY OF 1,500 CHILDREN, AND A CON- 

 TRIBUTION TO THE CAUSE OF THE 

 SUMMER INFANT MORTALITY 



By HERMAN SCHWARZ, M. D., New York, Assistant Adjunct Pedi- 

 utrist to Mt. Sinai Hospital, Director of the Children's Depart- 

 ment of the Maternity Polyclinic (Dr. Hill's Clinic) 



The opportunity to study the infancy of 1,500 children was 

 given me by means of a pediatric department, which I established 

 in connection with the obstetrical clinic of Dr. I. L. Hill. The 

 plans and results of the first year's work were reported in the 

 Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. LIV, page 

 1307, and in the annual report of the institution. At present 

 the work may be divided into pre-natal and post-natal stages. 

 The pre-natal portion is in the hands of Dr. Hill and his assist- 

 ants, and consists of general medical and gynaecological care of 

 the woman. It is our endeavor to have them apply to the clinic 

 as early in their pregnancy as possible and put them into the 

 best possible medical and mental condition. The latter is done 

 by providing for their means of livelihood and giving general 

 aid. For aid in this we have to thank the many excellent chari- 

 ties in New York City. 



The post-natal work begins at birth. A pediatric nurse sees 

 the child a few hours after birth, bathes it, prepares the cord in 

 the ordinary manner, and visits the child daily until it is taking 

 the breast well, or knows the reason why it is not taking the 

 breast. The importance of seeing the child from birth in refer- 

 ence to our influence on breast feeding is very well illustrated 

 by a report of Dr. Gerstenberger's, who had made some arrange- 

 ment by which the obstetrical clinics in Cleveland sent him the 

 babies. Of 171 babies seen by nurses for the first time, with 

 ages ranging from to 3 months, the percentage on the breast 

 had decreased to 76. The main object of this work as a 

 preventive of infant mortality was to encourage breast feed- 

 ing. The nurses were instilled with the propaganda of breast 

 feeding. Everything known to the science of maternal nursing 

 was tried before the child was allowed the bottle. 



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