CAPITOL MAINTENANCE WORKERS BUILD INCUBATORS FOR FIGHT AGAINST DEATHS OF PREMATURE BABIES
Wilber, Havens
Capitol Maintenance Workers Build Incubators For Fight Against Deaths of Premature Babies By HAVKNS WILBER Forty infant Incubators, inexpensive white wooden boxes made by the maintenance workers...
...That Is why the board of health is having the infant incubators constructed...
...The humidity is maintained by wet to\ye)s placed in a copper receptacle above the light bulb...
...The appointment was made by the executive committee at Oshkosh...
...The first incubators will be ready for shipment next ^eek...
...Seek Transportation Speed The incubators are 16 by 16 by 28 Inches in size and are adapted from designs of larger incubators used throughout the nation...
...And while the total number of infant deaths decreased by 162 in 1939 as compared with 1938...
...The incubators also have a humidifying system...
...The extent of deaths of premature infants assumes greater importance when It is realized that the 753 premature babies who died in 1938 totalled 32.6 per cent of all of the Infants which died that year, a total of 2.308...
...The baby within the incubator may be observed by the nurse and doctor through glass doors on the top cover...
...according to provisional figures, the number of deaths of premature infants increased from 32.6 per cent of the total number of infant fatalities in 1938 to 36.2 per cent of the 1939 total...
...Harper stated...
...Amy Louise Hunter, chief of Urban Van Suster of Little Chute was appointed co-chairman of district eight to work with Dominic Ole.jnlc-zak of Green Bay...
...Cost of the incubators Is being paid by the children's bureau, a federal agency, although they will be the property of the state board of health...
...slate health officer, cites figures to show Just how Imp riant the problem Is...
...The Incubators, made of one-half inch, five-ply fir, cost but $18 each, a small price to pay fi.-r saving hundreds of Wisconsin luothers the grief of lusing children which chance to be born prematurely...
...Because many farms and village homes in the state have no electricity and because electricity in small community sometimes fails, the Incubators are built with a drawer running the entire length of the bottom...
...The Infant lies on a 2 Inch mattress within the incubator...
...Hot water bottles or hot bricks may be placed in the drawer to heat the incubator...
...Heat is provided by a 40 watt electric bulb...
...The incubators are equipped with thermostats and thermometers to govern the temperature which must be kept constantly at not less than 90 degrees...
...Speed of transportation is important because the first 12 hours after birth is vital in saving the life of a premature baby...
...They are small and light In weight so that they may be speedily transported for use where-ever a premature baby is born...
...A total of 1,759 babies was born prematurely during 1938 and 753 of them died, Dr...
...Finishing touches ar now being applied to the incubators by employes in the basement of the east wing of tin capitol working uncler direction of I. O. Rlesen supervisor of building maintenance...
...Capitol Maintenance Workers Build Incubators For Fight Against Deaths of Premature Babies By HAVKNS WILBER Forty infant Incubators, inexpensive white wooden boxes made by the maintenance workers of the state capitol, will soon be sent throughout Wisconsin by the stale board of health for use by county nurc . and small hospitals in Ihe fight against death of premsture babies, a vexing prob-leip in the infant mortality field...
...And the death of premature babies Is a problem which has challenged the Wisconsin medical profcslon for years Dr...
...C. A. Hnrpei...
Vol. 10 • April 1940 • No. 15
