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41
Illustrative Cases.
1. An expectant mother was visited one month before her confinement.
There were 9 children, all living. The family occupied
2 rooms. The mother had pleurisy and was poulticed by 'he
husband when he came home from work. When the pain got
less she used to get up and clean the children and the home. She
was unable to enter a hospital because there was no one to look
after the children in her absence. The father was a costermonger
and earned from 12s. to 14s. a week. The mother provided the
equipment for her confinement. It consisted of 2 woollen vests,
2 flannel binders, 2 flannel barracoats, 4 second-hand cotton gowns
and one shawl. She had not provided any binders for the baby
because "she did not hold with them, and knew that babies were
better without them." However, the student who attended her
in her confinement made her buy some. When she was confined
she had on her hands three babies that could not walk.
2. The baby was 3 months old, and the third child. Two
lived. The family occupied one room, and was destitute. Everything
that could be pawned had been pawned. The mother had
no underclothes, no coat, no shoes. The only bedding left was a
soiled mattress and a pair of sheets, which could not be pawned
because they had been stitched down the middle. The mother got
up a few days after her confinement to earn money by taking in
washing. Her husband did the wringing.
3. The baby was 10 weeks old, the second child, and the only
one living. The family occupied one room. When she was visited
by the health visitor the mother was thin, insufficiently fed, and
badly clad. She had just "shortened" the baby because it was
Easter time. The baby's clothes for this purpose had been borrowed
from a neighbour. The only food in the house was bread,
butter, and tea dust. The mother had been recommended for free
dinners, but she had been unable to attend because her "husband
kept on giving her black eyes."
4. The baby was 2 weeks old and the third child. One child
had died. The family occupied 2 rooms. The mother sold shell