Y HOSPITALS
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The Honourable T. A. FOLEY Secretary for Health and Home Affairs
]VI OTHERHOOD is the very fount of the nation’s strength, and ^ in the quality of the mothers of our race lies the seed of its
greatness.
No people may hope to survive if they are careless of the welfare of mothers and children, and no government may be termed good if it neglects to make provision for children to be born under the best and safest conditions.
In Queensland maternal and child welfare has been given paramount place among the social services. The State’s maternity hospital system, improved and expanded for over 20 years, has drawn wide public attention and won unstinted praise.
The success attending the Government’s efforts in this direction is shown by the ever-increasing number of mothers who are taking advantage of the highly efficient service available in the 106 maternity hospitals throughout Queensland.
The number of births in State maternity hospitals has steadily increased until now it is about 60 per cent, of the total for Queensland. It is noteworthy that, out of a total of 1,074 confinements in the public section of the Brisbane Women’s Hospital in 1944, there was not one fatality.
The Government of Queensland, holding the view that every baby is precious and that the health of every mother is of national importance, will extend and improve this service so that no mother in any part of the State may be denied the very best of attention.
To achieve that purpose, hospital equipment and accommodation, nursing and medical skill are maintained at the highest
standard, and the training scheme for nurses and medical students will assure that skilled staff requirements are met.
Maternity hospitals are built to a standard plan which permits extensions to be added when required and provision is made for private as well as public wards. The cost of construction of these to date approximates £1,000,000.
Since 1st January, 1946, the services of the public wards have been free of charge. Patients in private wards get a subsidy of six shillings a day under an agreement entered into by the Commonwealth and State Governments.
Pre-natal advice is freely given at all maternity hospitals and expert attention is available for premature babies or those that are frail at birth.
Sisters from the Department of Maternal and Child Welfare visit and confer regularly with maternity sisters to obtain the history of difficult cases, and they arrange to visit mothers in their own homes to give them the benefit of their skilled advice.
During the worst of the war years, when staff shortages were acute and accommodation strained to the limit, there was a steady decrease in the number of deaths under one year per 1,000 births. In 1941, the figure was 39.13; 1942, 34.73; 1943, 37.39; 1944, 31.28, and 1945 29.76.
The figure for 1945 is the lowest ever recorded in Queensland and in that year there were 26,712 births, the highest birthrate on record.
In a bulletin issued by the Government Statistician covering the year 1944, it was stated that the number of children per marriage required to replace the present population was 2.29 after allowing for those who died in childhood and did not marry. The number of children being born in Queensland was 20 to 25 per cent, more than was needed to replace the present population and gave Queensland a basis of future expansion which most of the other States did not possess.
The greatest contribution to that increase came from the rural population and from the cities of Cairns, Mackay, Gympie, Maryborough, and Bundaberg.
A contributory factor in that position is undoubtedly the maternity hospital system and the skilled attention made available. This, coupled with the State-wide maternal and child welfare service, has inspired confidence and banished many of the fears associated with childbirth.
The excellence of these services has been their own advertisement and has done much to break down any prejudice that may have prevented expectant mothers from taking advantage of the facilities provided by the State.
The Government believes that no better investment can be made than that which provides a firm foundation for a healthy community and, in giving so much attention to the care of mother and child through its system of maternity hospitals and the maternal and child welfare centres, that is what is being done.
MODERN MATERNITY HOSPITALS IN THE COUNTRY
1. Hanlon Maternity Ward, Warwick.
2. Entrance, Hanlon Maternity Ward, Warwick.
3. Maternity Block, Goondiwindi Hospital.
4. Public Ward, Maternity Hospital, Goondiwindi.
5. Maternity Hospital, Mount Morgan.
6. Public Ward, Maternity Hospital, Mount Morgan.
7. Mount Morgan Maternity Hospital Veranda.
Examples of the type of hospital being built in country areas are illustrated in this booklet. These were designed to give the maximum of comfort to patients and to facilitate the important work of doctors and nursing staff.
In the construction of the hospitals, great attention has been given to the demands of tropical and sub-tropical conditions, and, architecturally, the buildings compare more than favourably with any in the Commonwealth.
WORK WILL GO ON.
Queensland has given a lead to the rest of Australia in this service, but the Government will not let it rest there. The expansion of the work interrupted temporarily by the war, will go on until the fullest possible provision is made for mothers in every part of Queensland.
It is the Government’s aim to build up a staff possessing not only a knowledge of the work, but enthusiasm and a sympathetic understanding of the needs of the mother and child, and to provide modern equipment, housed in the most suitable type of hospital building, wherever the need exists.
Maternity Hospital, Ipswich.
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Maternity Hospital, Ipswich.