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The numbers for 1912 were 312 first births, 2,209 total births,
and 7,239 visits. In 1913 the total number of births in the
Borough was 2,494, so that these figures show that during the year
eighty-three per cent, of all the births that occurred in Finsbury
came under the supervision of the Public Health Staff. In the
poorer districts of the borough—in the "slums"—all the births
are visited.
The number of twins born and visited was 42 sets, or one set for
every 59 births. For the whole country it is usual to find that
twins occur in one out of every 60 to 80 births, and triplets in one
out of 0,000 to 7,000 births.
Method of Feeding.—Nearly all the Finsbury mothers breast
feed their children wholly or partially until the baby is four weeks
old. Many mothers then return to work, but still endeavour to
continue breast feeding by coming home at meal times or by
suckling the baby in the house of a "minder," where it has been
deposited earlier in the day near the factory or workshop.
Otherwise, when the mother works, the baby is left with its
grandmother, with a neighbour, or, quite commonly, with a young
girl, aged from 10 to 16 years, who may be dirty, careless and
negligent, and whose ideas of feeding may be summed up in the
words of one such girl: "I feeds 'im when 'e cries—if'e don't
cry, 'e don't get none."