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43
of the second week where the notification has been made by
the midwife or responsible person, and shortly after the mother
is up, where a medical practitioner has notified the birth, if your
Medical Officer of Health has considered it a suitable case for
visitation. Your Medical Officer considers that if visited early
the mother is open to receive advicg concerning her offspring,
and will frequently tell the Health Visitor of little difficulties
she may have with other children and seek that advice which
it is in the province of the Health Visitor to give.
Miss McCleverty has reported to me that she has paid
2324 visits during the year, 1646 being first visits and 678
being re-visits.
The midwives receive the visits to their patients quite
cordially, and support our efforts in advising the mother in the
care of herself and her offspring.
Breast-feeding is generally attempted for the first two
months, after which time the milk disappears or becomes of
very poor quality, ft is unfortunately a fact that the child is
then fed either upon boiled bread, cheap brands of condensed
milk, or as an alternative skimmed milk.
It is after the breast milk disappears that the real trouble
commences, and in some families baby after baby suffers from
rickets and wasting diseases. In the poorest of homes the
milk is frequently given too greatly diluted.
It is such cases as these that show the immediate necessity
of providing Schools for Mothers and Infant Consultations in
every suitable locality. Dummies or comforters, I regret to
state, are still very general, notwithstanding every effort to teach
the mother the injury they do to the health of their little ones.
The puerperium is frequently too short in the case of
women with large families, and results disastrous to the health
of the mother may be a consequence. Many defects and
nuisances in the houses which otherwise might be overlooked,