Maternal mortality and morbidity : an address / by Edward Mellanby.

  • Mellanby, Edward, Sir, 1884-1955.
Date:
[1930?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Maternal mortality and morbidity : an address / by Edward Mellanby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/18 (page 96)
    child was walking straight it did not follow that it was not rickety. They had to deal with the child and consider its health when it is grown up and producing a baby. Sound teeth and the condition of the regular action of the bowels were of the utmost importance to the expectant mother. Some women’s mouths showed that they must swallow a good deal of infection ; that was very common among women who led an indoor life ; and if there was infection in the intestines it was passed on to the unborn child. There was a popular idea that if you extracted a woman’s teeth during pregnancy, she would have a mis¬ carriage. That was perfectly wrong. Seventy per cent, of the cases which came to the Royal Free Hospital are sent to the Dental Depart¬ ment ana there has never been one case of miscarriage. Dr. Mellanby had spoken of the research into puerperal sepsis. The report of the Maternal Mortality Committee showed that the deaths from lung conditions were extremely high. In the majority of cases, septic pneumonia is due to septic uterine conditions. The most modern treatment of sepsis was not douching or curetting. There had been a revolution in the treatment and an important item in the treatment is to clear out the in¬ fection in the intestines by the daily washing out of the intestines. By washing out the toxins from the intestines, the patient would improve in a great majority of cases. Dr. Mellanby had given a list of various foods which the patients could take, but the question of the cooking of those foods should be looked into. That is where the trouble lies. In France and Germany, more attention is paid to this question than in England. The aver¬ age Frenchwoman knew how to cook very much better than the average Englishwoman of the working classes. If it is necessary for a pregnant woman to take a certain amount of good food, it must be cooked and served up in a proper manner. Another point upon which great stress should be laid was the drinking of water. There were in this country very few facilities for drink¬ ing water. Not long ago she made a visit to Canada and the United States and she was very much impressed with the amount of water drunk, and it had a very marked effect on the people as a whole. If pregnant women could be persuaded to drink a great deal of water, it would flush out the intestines and kidneys and have a great effect in preventing sepsis. Water should be freely supplied in hotels and restaurants and in public places. Professor Mcllroy concluded her remarks by expressing her admiration for Dr. Mellanby’s work and said that it was on these lines that scientists like Dr. Mellanby would get the solution of the problem. She was very grateful for the Paper, and had learned an enormous amount from it. Dr. J. Jervis (Medical Officer of Health for the City of Leeds) : Sir Arthur Robinson, Ladies and Gentlemen, I should in the first place like to add my congratulations to Pro¬ fessor Mellanby for his very valuable contri¬ bution to this very difficult subject of Maternal Mortality. The profession of Medicine, as well as the community in general, owe a very great debt to Professor Mellanby and his good wife for the many brilliant researches which they have carried out into the practical prob¬ lems of to-day. What always occurs to one in reading the productions of our scientific institutions is that so much work is done on abstruse subjects which have very little rela¬ tionship to everyday problems. Professor Mellanby has applied himself to problems of the very first importance regarding our every day life and health, and this is one of them. But in approaching the subject of Maternal Mortality, I find that the further we go into it, the more baffling it becomes. Our know¬ ledge of it is very contradictory indeed. You have just heard Professor Mcllroy state that they drink more water in the United States than we do here. Probably because they have no option ; it is a case of Hobson’s choice. But, nevertheless, the maternal mortality in the United States is much higher than it is in this country—the very opposite to what one would expect if water had anything to do with it. I have some statistics here which I have prepared on the subject. I am not going to weary you with unnecessary statistics, but these figures are very important indeed. They refer to my own City, the City of Leeds, and I think they may be taken as typical of the country as a whole. The City is divided into 17 Wards, and the three Wards with the largest population, and those in which the majority of the slum areas are to be found, strange to say, give us the most favourable statistics so far as maternal mortality is con¬ cerned. For example, in 10 years the average maternal mortality for the whole of Leeds is 4.49 per cent., but if we take the three Wards