Address on a National League for Physical Education and Improvement : delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Manchester Children's Hospital, February 24th, 1905 / by Sir Lauder Brunton.
- Brunton, Thomas Lauder, Sir, 1844-1916.
- Date:
- [1905]
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Address on a National League for Physical Education and Improvement : delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Manchester Children's Hospital, February 24th, 1905 / by Sir Lauder Brunton. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![s JKork of the League—ProfijKcticc ^^others. ami that every chikl should participate in the l^enefits that it is likely to confer. If this scheme is carried out it is evident tliat the proposed organisation will 1)e an enormous one, and it will take a considerable time to organise. Eut supposing it he organised, what is it going to do ? First of all it is to find out what needs to be done; secondly, to find out how the needed work should be done ; and, thirdly, to do it. Now, we already know in a general way a good deal of what needs to be done. Life goes on and on, and as one life dies another begins. One might fi.x; upon any part of the cycle as a beginning, but perhaps the most convenient time is to take the mother shortly before the birth of her child. In towns such as ]\Ianchester, as the Eeport of this Hospital states, the mother is not only young and weakly, but she is ignorant, and in consequence of this ignorance she often renders herself still more weakly by continuing her work in factories almost up to the-time the child is born instead of giving herself a rest for some time before. The first thing to he done is to remedy this ignorance if we can. In all that I say here I must beg you not to think I am speaking with any authority, nor as having been commissioned in any way to give advice, but only as throwing- out suggestions for your consideration, for although the objects of the League have been considered and approved generally l>y those who have given their adherence to it, the details have not yet been worked out, and tli-e experience of those who have been doing so much to further its objects in Manchester will be most valuable in drawing up a definitive scheme for its working. The ignorance of the young girl who is just about to become a mother might, perhaps, be enlightened to some extent by advice given her at the Hospital or Dispensary when she applies for someone to attend her during her confinement. She might then be told of the disadvantage of continuing to work until confinement took place, and- at the same time might he instructed as to what preparations she ought to make for the baby’s advent—what clothes she should have ready, what assistance she should get for carrying on the work of the house until sbe was al»le to get iip, and how she should feed the baby. She might then learn what an enormous advantage it would](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22430544_0010.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
