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(Note—As the London Borough of Wandsworth did not come into existence
until 1st April, 1965, figures relating to births in the area of the new
Borough are estimated before 1966.)
Unmarried Mothers
Unmarried mothers need all the maternity and child welfare
services available to married women and in addition many of
them need a great deal of special help and continuous sympathetic
support. In addition unmarried mothers seeking the help of the
health visitors are, where appropriate, given the address of a Moral
Welfare Worker from whom they may seek advice if they so desire.
In many cases the Moral Welfare Worker and health visitor work
together to ensure that an unmarried mother who wishes to remain
at home and keep her baby shall receive as much help as possible.
Many women in this position of course prefer to remain quite
independent and make their own arrangements through the normal
maternity and child welfare services of the Borough.
The Southwark Diocesan Moral Welfare Association has now
rearranged its area boundaries so that the local area coincides with
the area of the Borough of Wandsworth and the three staff work
from a local office, an arrangement which has made co-operation
with the Borough field staff much easier.
The three mother and baby homes in the area are registered as
nursing homes and inspected regularly by medical officers and
public health inspectors. The health visitor for the area visits
each home regularly and follows up the mothers and babies on
discharge.
Cervical Cytology
I have already made a general comment on cervical cytology
in my introduction to this Report which appears on page 6 and
details of the developments in this service over the past year are
given in the ensuing paragraphs.