View report page

19
Health Visitors.
The work done by the Council's Health Visitors during 1913
comprised, amongst other matters, the visiting of the homes from
which births of infants were notified. During the year 1913,
1,178 of the total number of births notified were visited by the
Council's Health Visitors. In addition, 1,080 revisits were paid,
and the voluntary workers of the Battersea Voluntary Health
Society also paid a number of visits to the homes of infants visited
in the first instance by the Council's Health Visitors. This
enabled continuous observation to be kept over those children
whose progress it was desirable should be followed up, and the
work of the Council was in this way assisted.
As in past years, those districts of the Borough in which
the circumstances and status of the inhabitants most required the
services of the Health Visitors were specially attended to, and much
good work was done. The areas selected were situate mainly in
the more congested areas of East and North-West Battersea.
The nature of the work done has been. fully set out in past
Annual Reports. It included inquiries into the conditions of home
life, health of mothers before and after childbirth, health of infants,
nature of food given, &c., &c. Special attention was also devoted
to the sanitary condition of the homes, e.g., number of rooms
occupied, lighting, ventilation, and cleanliness.
The reports of the Health Visitors show that cleanliness of
the homes and attention to personal cleanliness is being, on the
whole, better observed.
The high rate of mortality 'from respiratory diseases, apart
from the effects of severe weather, is stated in her report by one
of the Health Visitors to be due to lack of proper clothing. It
is found difficult, she says, to persuade mothers that a small
quantity of flannel underclothing is preferable to a large amount
of the cheaper and consequently more popular flannelette. The
importance of this should be made clear by Children's Care Committees.
Another evil to which she considers attention should be
drawn is the practice, which appears to be fairly common amongst
the poorer class of mothers when short-coating their babies, to
omit to protect the child's legs and feet. My own experience
confirms this, as, when examining and weighing infants at the
weekly weighings held at the Latchmere Baths, I have had
repeatedly to draw the attention of the mothers to the danger of
this neglect on their part.
The number of mothers visited during the year by this Health
Visitor shows an unusual proportion suffering from ill-health,
nearly 25 per cent. of 743 mothers visited being in this condition.
In many cases these women were not suffering from actual disease,