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to the duty of notification to the notice of the public in Battersea.
A circular letter was sent by the Council drawing the attention of
those whose duty it was to notify the occurrence of births within
the statutory period, and to the penalty incurred for default. That
this timely reminder has yielded satisfactory results is shown by
the greatly increased return in the number of births notified during
1912 in the Borough. No prosecutions have been instituted
during the year for failure to notify.
Health Visitors.
Of the total number of births notified during 1912, 1,045 were
visited by the Council's health visitors. In addition 569 re-visits
were made, and a considerable number of visits were made by
the voluntary workers of the Battersea Voluntary Health Society,
who keep under continuous observation infants visited in the first
instance by the Council's officers. Much good work in this direction
has been carried on during the year, which is exemplified in
the satisfactory statistics of mortality in the Borough in 1912.
As in past years, attention has been mainly directed to those
districts of the Borough where, from the circumstances and status
of the inhabitants, the services of the health visitors were most
likely to be of use. These localities are situated principally in
the more congested areas of East and North-West Battersea.
The results of the enquiries made by the health visitors at the
homes of the 1,045 infants visited are summarised as follows:—
The enquiries made had reference to the—
(a) Mothers : health and occupation of, number of children,
whether mother attended in her confinement by a doctor
or midwife, condition of the house and the number of
rooms occupied.
(b) Child : condition of health at birth and nature of food
given.
Two hundred and eleven of the mothers of the 1,045 children
visited were found to be suffering more or less seriously from illhealth.
In 600 instances a doctor was in attendance at the birth, in
393 cases the mother was attended by a midwife, in only 12 cases
was the mother attended by an uncertified nurse, as compared with
23 cases in 1911, 29 in 1910, and 65 in 1909, showing a satisfactory
decline in the demand for the service of these irresponsible,
usually ignorant, and frequently dirty persons.