London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Ilford 1955

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Ilford]

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50
Illegitimate Births and Deaths.—55 of the live births registered
(35 males and 20 females) were illegitimate, that is 2 6% of the births
registered.
Two illegitimate children (both males) died under one year of age.

The followingtable shows the birth and death rates of legitimate and illegitimate infants for the past ten years:—

YearLegitimate InfantsIllegitimate Infants
Live BirthsPercentage of Registered BirthsDeathsRate per 1,000 Legitimate Live BirthsLive BirthsPercentage of Registered BirthsDeathsRate per 1,000 Illegitimate Live Births
19552,01597.44019.6552.6236.4
19542,14597.84018.6482.2128.8
19582,16497.04319.9673.0229.9
19522,23296.14419.7913.9-
19512,30697.14921.2702.9114.3
19502,33296.94117.6743.1454.0
19492,56797.65119.9632.4231.7
19482,75796.85821.0913.2443.9
19473,25896.77823.91103.3436.4
19463,33696.99729.11073.1546.7

The Chelmsford Diocesan Moral Welfare Association continued in
1955 to undertake the care of the unmarried mother and her child on
behalf of the County Council and there has been direct co-operation
through their Moral Welfare Worker for this district. In addition, all
cases are followed up by the Health Visitors.
Health Visitors and School Nurses.— The shortage of health
visiting staff continued and Clinic Nurses continued to be employed to
relieve the Health Visitors of certain duties.
The Essex County Council's Training Scheme for Health Visitors, in
conjunction with the S.E. Essex Technical College, has continued and
two trainees were allocated to Ilford for practical instruction during 1955.
Four trainees, on completing the course in 1955 and passing the examination
for the Health Visitors' Certificate of the Royal Institute of Public
Health, were appointed as Health Visitors and School Nurses here.
At the end of the year there were 13 full-time qualified Health Visitors
and School Nurses in addition to the Superintendent Health Visitor, and
5 Clinic Nurses. Although this shows an increase from the beginning of
the year, the health visiting saff is still well below the approved establishment
of 18.
The following is a summary of the home visits made by the Health
Visitors and Clinic Nurses during 1955 as far as the Maternity and Child
Welfare work is concerned: —
First visits to newly-born infants 2,203
Subsequent visits to children under 1 year of age 4.120
Subsequent visits to children over 1 year of age and under 5 10.189
Visits to expectant mothers 534
Home visits for other reasons 824
Tatol visit paid 17,870