Good Advice

On How Many

And When

Planned families have been com mon among advanced people for a long time but only the post-war population explosion has made the idea acceptable among Asian and Pacific peoples. A small book called “Plan Your Family ”, by Dr. Phyllis D. Cilento (in private life the wife of Sir Raphael Cilento, one-time Director of Health in New Guinea), which introduces some new angles on an old subject, should be of practical use to both categories.

ALTHOUGH it has long been practised, contraception has be come acceptable drawing-room con versation only since the introduction of The Pill—the taking of the small tablet being considered asceptic enough and non-sexual enough even for Archbishops to think of without a blush.

The author of this book, however, doesn’t consider The Pill the ultimate. She, in fact, regards it with reservation—as something of a stop-gap until the woman can adjust to a more mechanical device.

Dr. Cilento has raised a large family herself but has not let it interfere with her profession. She has been in medical practice for the last 40 years and for 30 years has been an industrious writer and broadcaster on medical subjects.

To gather material for this book and to study the latest trends in family-planning she made a world trip, visiting clinics in many

countries and attending seminars.

What she has written is primarily for Australian consumption. Family restriction is not a national issue in Australia; to the contrary, Australia is anxious to increase her population both by natural means and by migra tion, and family-planning is left to the individual.

To this extent there is probably far less publicity on the subject in Australia than in a small country like Fiji where it is in the national interest to put some damper on the population explosion that threatens the standard of living.

Five years ago, family-planning was a new and not particularly welcome idea in Fiji. In 1962 when family-planning clinics had been established in about 20 centres, 3,000 women attended them in the course of that year.

In the calendar year of 1964, over 16,000 women in Fiji attended the clinics. The result can already be seen in the Indian birth-rate figures, which fell below 40 per thousand in 1963 for the first time in more than 20 years.

The Fiji Government, through its Medical Department, helps the work along by providing contraceptives at nominal cost or free. Family planning centres supply contraceptive pills at 2/6 per month; and the newer and even more favoured plastic intra-uterine devices for nothing.

Dr. Cilento devotes only a short chapter to these newer developments and a large part of her book to older methods which, while they may be effective with fairly sophisticated subjects, are often un acceptable and beyond the capabilities

of Asian and Islands women.

JT.

(PLAN YOUR FAMILY. Jacaranda. 21/-.)