Caring for the Coming Generations

The institution receives the expectant mother from the first month until delivery.

She is examined by the women doctors, each in her own specialty; her blood is analyzed in the institution's laboratory; the history of disease in her family is ascertained; she is weighed; then she is referred to the official bureau, where an official report is drawn up on her circumstances — her material situation, her means, and her dwelling — so that the "health section" may visit her monthly or weekly, as need requires, in her home until the time of delivery. It should be known that the expectant mother comes to the center once a month at the beginning of pregnancy and then twice a month until delivery; and in return the "staff worker" visits her at home to observe closely how the instructions given her are being carried out, and her domestic and material circumstances, and so forth.

The Chief Aim

The conversation between Dr. Ghassan and myself passes on to what follows delivery. He says: Our sole aim is to bring the child into this world sound of body, free of every ailment... For this reason the midwife is sent to deliver the expectant mother in her own home if her condition calls for it; and if the delivery is not normal, she is sent to the maternity home.

As for her home, she is cared for by us there as though she were in a private hospital: the midwife visits her every day until the eighth day after delivery, giving her the nourishment necessary for herself and for the child. Note, too, that we give the expectant mother milk from the first month until delivery, after making certain of her need for it.

Everything for the Child

Here Dr. Ghassan began to explain to me how the institution accompanies the child. He said:

"The scales, the analytical laboratory, and the examinations — all this stands ever ready to receive the child from his first week until his fifth year."

I found myself drawn on and eager to learn more, so I said: May I know

something about the situation of the health assistants who have newly entered the institution? Dr. Jallad answered me, saying:

"We now have nearly twenty assistants, come from all the provinces for a year's training, as the statute of the institution provides. It is required that the assistant be between eighteen and twenty-five years of age and unmarried; she is then sent back as an employee to the center from which she came, because in my belief that is more useful, since she knows a great deal about the district and about the mothers in it — her own district, that is — under a contract with us for two years after graduation." And he went on:

"As for the doctors, their period of training does not exceed three weeks; likewise the licensed midwives, whose training lasts six months before they enter the institution officially."

The Foreign Experts

At this moment one of the foreign women experts asked leave to enter, carrying a bundle of papers and documents, and I asked, in the spirit of one seeking information,