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The following resolutions were passed at a National Conference
on Infantile Mortality, which was held at the Caxton Hall, Westminster,
in June, 1906, under the presidency of the Rt. Hon. John
Burns, M.P., President of the Local Government Board:—
1. That the Education Department be urged to add instruction
in elementary Hygiene with reference to the dietary
and rearing of infants, to their present scheme for systematically
training girls of the senior classes in the practice and principles
of personal hygiene and the elements of dietary.
2. That in the opinion of this Conference, immediate legislation
is required enabling sanitary authorities to establish or
support depots for the supply of pure, or modified, or sterilized
milk, and to defray any cost out of the monies available for
public health purposes.
3. That in view of the information submitted, the Conference
is of opinion that all still births should be notified within
48 hours to the Medical Officer of Health of the district in which
they occur, and that no burial should take place without a
medical certificate.
4. That notification of all births should be given within
48 hours to the Medical Officer of Health of the district in which
they occur.
5. That in the opinion of this Conference, the question of
insurance of infant lives under 12 months is one demanding
serious consideration, and, with the view of receiving reliable
information, the Government should be asked to appoint a
departmental committee of enquiry on the whole question.
6. (a) That the period of one month's abstention from
factory work away from home now imposed on mothers, be extended
to at least three months, and that, on their return to work,
evidence must be produced, satisfactory to the local authority,
that proper provision has been made for the care of the child.
(b) That no employer of labour shall permit a woman advanced
in pregnacy to engage in factory labour unless her
ability therefor has been certified to the satisfaction of the local
authority.
7. (a) That, having regard to the ascertained fact that in
centres of industries where women are largely employed away
from their homes, an excessive number of deaths of infants takes
place, and that this is contributed to by the improper conditions
existing at the houses in which the infants are placed out to
nurse, it is necessary that the persons by whom and the places