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89
NECESSITOUS MOTHERS (ASSISTANCE) BILL, 1909.
The object of this Bill was to reduce infantile mortality, and to make
practical efforts to raise the standard of physical motherhood among workingclass
mothers by rendering it possible for pregnant and nursing mothers of
that class to stay at home and refrain from hard physical work for a limited
period before and after parturition; also to encourage breast-feeding of infants
for an adequate period.
The Bill was permissive, and gave local authorities power to provide such
food, medical aid, nursing and other accessories—to be specified in regulations
to be made by the local authority and approved by the Local Government
Board—for the purpose of assisting necessitous women during pregnancy
and child-birth.
The nature of the assistance to be rendered by the local authority, provided
the women agreed to comply with the regulations, included (a) food and any
other necessaries for the woman, (b) medical assistance and nursing in relation
to and during confinement, and (c) food and other necessaries for the woman
during a period not exceeding six months after child-birth. The local
authority might make it a condition of supplying food or other necessaries to
the mother that (if capable) she should feed the infant at the breast. It was
made a condition under which such maintenance was to be provided that the
woman pledged herself not to work for wages for a specified time before and
after child-birth.
This Bill was dropped before the second reading.
HEALTH VISITORS (LONDON) ORDER, 1909.
Section 6 of the London County Council (General Powers) Act, 1908,
empowers sanitary authorities in the Metropolis to appoint suitable women,
to be known as Health Visitors, for the purpose of giving to persons advice
as to the proper nurture, care and management of young children, and under
the same section the Local Government Board may issue an order making
Regulations with respect to the qualifications, mode of appointment, duties,
salary, and tenure of office of such Health Visitors.
An Order for the purpose was accordingly issued by the Board on the
4th September, 1909. (See Appendix G, p. 171.)
No Health Visitors have been appointed by the Corporation, the work for
which their appointment is suggested being carried out as part of the duties
of your Women Sanitary Inspectors. In the circumstances no action could
be taken under the Order in question.