Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/237

221 Extensions of Nursing Field 221 vation, by cutting the infant death rate of a large city exactly in half in five years' time. This little country, sometimes called a laboratory ^^^^ conser- for social experimentation, the first vation of, r 1 • js • i. child life to enfranchise women and register nurses, founded the Society for the Health of Women and Children (1907) with which the name of Dr. Truby King is inseparably connected. The society's plans, as developed, included the state registration of trained nurses and trained mid- wives ; a chain of government maternity hospitals ; government supervision of all homes for children, and the registration of births. The society's local branches, of which there are many, are composed of women, each branch having an advisory coun- cil of men. The infant-saving work developed a special nursing service, and the "Plunket nurses" (so-called because a governor-general of New Zea- land of that name gave the initial fund), after receiving post-graduate training in special Baby hospitals, devoted their entire time to the care of mothers and babies, beginning with pre-natal care and going through the babies' early years. In the United States the first organized child welfare work directed toward the reduction of infant mortality was the work of the Baby Health Stations. With the realization that 40% of infant