View report page

42
In addition the Department supplies "Finsbury Cream," a
special form of fat food to wasting and debilitated children.
Expectant mothers come for help and advice. The homes of
all the attending mothers are visited. Some look clean and tidy
when they come to the weighing centre—but a visit to their
homes may discover that they are domestically filthy and
negligent, devoid of all house pride, living in foul and verminous
tenements.
Pertinent statements made as to the causes of their ailments
or poverty are enquired into.
To give an actual example:—
A mother came to a weighing centre, and said she was
"starving." Her home was visited. It was a one-roomed
tenement rented at 3s. weekly, and occupied by the mother,
grandmother, the mother's brother, 30 years, a girl 5 years, and
the baby 5 weeks. The baby was illegitimate. Its father was
the landlord of the house. There was a large and abundant meal
of Irish stew on the table. The grandmother stated she had not
got the old age pension. The neighbours asserted she obtained
her old age pension every week and "got blind drunk on it
every time."
Very few of the mothers attend regularly.
Some bring their babies when they are out of sorts, but stop
coming if the babies begin to improve.
Some again come as long as their husbands are in work, but
when their husbands are unemployed, have themselves to go to
work.
Occasionally the mother ceases to attend because she has "no
ha'pence, and does not like to come without," or because her boots
and clothes are in pawn.
In a few instances the mother has not brought the baby because
she has been told that "it is unlucky to have the baby weighed
until it is over a year old."