These nurses are trained and instructed by Dr. Rutgers in the proper
means and hygienic principles of the methods of Family Limitation. They
are established in practice in the various towns and cities throughout
Holland. They not only advise women as to the best method to employ to
prevent conception, but they also supply them with a well-fitted
pessary, and teach them how to adjust, remove, and care for it—all for
the small sum of 1½ guilder, or about 60 cents. They work mainly in the
agricultural and industrial districts, or are located near them; and
their teachings include not only the method of prevention of conception,
but instruction in general and sexual hygiene, cleanliness, the
uselessness of drugs, and the non-necessity of abortions.
In this country, for a nurse to dare to fit a woman with a pessary would
be considered a breach of professional rights. In Holland, they know the
poor cannot pay the physicians, and this simple adjustment is looked
upon by the medical profession much as they view the nurse administering
an enema or a douche.
I had the pleasure of attending some of the classes where Dr. Rutgers
gave this course of instruction. I also attended and assisted in the
clinics where women came to be advised, instructed, and fitted. Many of
them came for the first time, and though they were unacquainted with any
means to be employed, they accepted the instructions in a most natural
and intelligent manner. Other women came to be refitted, and many
brought the pessary previously used, to ask questions concerning its
adjustment.
There was a determined social responsibility in the attitude of these
peasant women coming into The Hague from the surrounding districts. It
seemed like a great awakening. They look upon a new baby in the family
much as they look upon the purchase of an automobile or a piano or any
other luxury where they have no room to keep it, and no means with which
to purchase it or to continue in its upkeep.
There is no doubt that the establishment of these clinics is one of the
most important parts in the work of a Birth Control League. The written
word and written directions are very good, but the fact remains that
even the best educated women have very limited knowledge of the
construction of their generative organs or their physiology. What, then,
can be expected of the less educated women, who have had less advantages
and opportunities? It is consequently most desirable that there be
practical teaching of the methods to be recommended, and women taught
the physiology of their sex organs by those equipped with the knowledge
and capable of teaching it.
The Neo-Malthusian League of Holland endorses, as the most reliable
means of prevention of conception, the Mensinger pessary (which differs
in construction from the French or the American Mizpah pessary). The
nurses also recommend this; but other methods are discussed with the
patient, and the husband’s attitude toward other methods considered and
discussed. The pessary is the commonest recommendation, as giving the
most satisfactory results.