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medical practitioner, and ask to be examined thoroughly. If
women did this main' lives could be saved.
All women (such as nurses and midwives, but not only
they) who are especially liable to be consulted on these
matters, should avoid expressing any opinion of their own, but
should advise the enquirer to go at once to a properly qualified
medical practitioner and insist on being examined.
F. H. Champneys, M.D., F.R.C.P.,
Chairman of the Central Midwives Board.
INFLAMMATION OF THE EYES IN NEWBORN
CHILDREN.
Ophthalmia Neonatorum.
This is a very common cause of hopeless blindness, which
is one of the greatest misfortunes that can happen to a child.
A very large number of children will be saved from blindness
if the following directions of the Central Midwives Board are
observed.
The disease generally arises from purulent discharges from
the mother getting into the baby's eyes at birth.
It is therefore of the greatest importance that this should
be prevented:—
1. By curing such discharges if possible before Labour.
This requires medical treatment (Rule E 19 (2)
& (3)).
2. By taking the greatest care that such discharges
shall not be carried into the baby's eyes when
it opens them for the first time soon after its
head is born.