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74
The attendances at the weighing centre at the Pitfield Street Baths during
the first half of the year were good, and showed a marked tendency to increase.
Satisfactory progress was being made, when, in June, it was suddenly decided that
the room should be put at the disposal of the National Relief Fund Committee,
and consequently it became necessary to transfer the Centre to the Maternity
Centre at 152, Kingsland Road. This change being made without due notice had a
disastrous effect on the attendances, which fell to less than one-third of those for
the first half of the year and a great deal of the time and energy spent on
building up the connection between myself and those attending was entirely
wasted.
The establishment of a branch of the Women's League of Service Dining
Rooms for Mothers, at the Council's Maternity Centre, has been of the greatest,
possible help in connection with work for the prevention of deterioration in
infant health. The babies whose mothers attend the Dining Rooms are weighed
weekly; it is interesting to compare the records kept of the progress of baby
whose mother has attended the Dining Rooms before and after its birth, with the
records of an older baby in the same family, when the mother was habitually
underfed, before and after its birth. A visual comparison also of the babies
shows that the advantage is all on the side of the younger one, whose mother was
more satisfactorily nourished.
Notifications of Puerperal Septicaemia.
Three cases have been certified during the year. One was a slight case, the
patient was admitted for a short time to a hospital and quickly recovered. One
occurring in a midwife's practice was removed to hospital and recovered; one
occurring in a doctor's practice, died in hospital after a few days illness.
Ophthalmia Neonatorum.
Sixteen cases were notified for Hoxton, two of these were investigated by my
colleague during my absence. Two of these occurred in the practice of doctors,
and fourteen in that of mnidwives. One child was severely affected, and vision
seriously impaired; the general health was most unsatisfactory, and the child
died in an institution when about four months old. Another child, in a similar
condition, was the second in the same family, the first having been notified in
1913; the family removed to another Borough when the baby was about five
weeks old. Five were slight cases which made rapid recovery; the remainder
received adequate attention. Parents are urged to attend the Royal Ophthalmic
Hospital in City Road whenever circumstances make this possible.
Tuberculosis.
Owing to the increasing activities of the Tuberculosis Dispensary, the amount
of my work in connection with tuberculosis continues to diminish.