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34
Maternity Benefit.—The payment of maternity benefit
has been of the greatest value to the mothers in Finsbury. It has
been chiefly spent on nourishment for the mother and children, in
buying clothes for the Gaby or redeeming them from pawn, in
retaining the services of a neighbour, an amateur nurse to attend
to the mother and her wants during the lying-in, and in getting
necessaries and the "hundred and one little things that are wanted
for a confinement at the last minute." It was sometimes spent
before it was received. The amount was borrowed beforehand,
and used to pay the doctor, to buy clothes for the mother or baby,
or to pay off back rent. Usually, the money was spent on the
mother and the children; it was only in a few cases of poverty
and underfeeding that the husband participated in its distribution.
Out of the large number of recipients, in only two cases was
the maternity benefit known to have been diverted into improper
channels and abused. In one instance, the mother and baby
died, and the father, a street seller, received the maternity benefit
and was "dead drunk" for two days. In the other, the family
consisted of the parents, five underfed children, and occupied two
rooms. The mother was extremely thin, and clad in a blouse and
petticoat. She had no other clothing. She had been feeding for
months on bread and tea, and had "forgotten what a dinner
tasted like." The father was in work, and a drunkard. He was
generally paid his wages on Friday, and on this day the family
waited without food until his return at night. The father
obtained the maternity benefit, spent it on drink, and had
delirium tremens in the bedroom where his wife lay after her
confinement. Two constables and a clergyman had to come in to
hold the father down, while, in the words of a neighbour, "The
was up and down like a cat in a fiddle.''
The following are a few actual examples of the ways in which
the maternity benefit was spent by Finsbury mothers :—
1. Neighbour nurse, 12s. for two weeks' services. Baby's
clothes, 6s. Redeeming mother's nightdress out of pawn, 2s.
The rest, 10s., was spent on food for the mother and baby. The
husband got nothing.