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79
(b) The average mothers, whose children get
on fairly.
(c) The indifferent mothers, who require
constant "keeping up to the mark."
The first two classes are the large majority, and
are generally glad to avail themselves of any help or
advice offered, while the last very often will not trouble;
and it has not been possible to give them the amount of
attention which is necessary. All are invited to bring
their children for weighing or advice to the Town Hall
any morning, and a large number have made a practice
of attending regularly for this purpose. In this way
they can be kept in touch with, with the least expenditure
of time.
These poor wasting babies are almost always
bottle-fed. Practically all the Bethnal Green mothers
who cease to nurse their infants, do so because they
cannot, not because they will not continue. Women
who are underfed and worried, and who have to work
so hard, cannot secrete milk good either in quantity or
quality. Some mothers too are women who are quite
unfit for such a vocation. Women obviously diseased
or delicate have stated that they married because they
knew themselves to be unable to depend upon their own
efforts for a living, and such women have no chance of
bearing strong and healthy children.
Enquiries concerning the industrial employment of
women, continue to shew that a very small percentage
of the mothers of young children in this district are so
employed, though most of the women are ready and