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services provided, and being conditional, in the case of a Voluntary
Agency, upon the work being co-ordinated, as far as
practicable, with the public health, and the school medical, services
of the Local Authority : —
(1) The salaries and expenses of Inspectors of Midwives;
(2) The salaries and expenses of Health Visitors;
(3) The provision of a midwife, or doctor, for the aid in
confinement of necessitous women;
(4) The expenses of a Maternity Centre, i.e., an institution
providing any, or all, of the following activities, viz.,
medical supervision and advice for expectant and
nursing mothers, and for infant? and little children,
and medical treatment for cases needing it.
There may be cases in which it may be difficult to discriminate
as to which Board application is to be made for a grant, or grants,
as there must, of necessity, be a certain amount of overlapping
in practice in the carrying out of the details of Schemes, e.g., to
provide treatment presupposes previous inspection, which would
naturally include some amount of supervision and teaching, etc.
The bearing of general insanitation (municipal and domestic),
impure water and milk supplies, bad housing, overcrowding, etc.,
must be remembered in connection with Schemes for Maternity
and Child Welfare, as showing how necessary it is for Local
Authorities, through their health departments, to take part in,
and to arrange for, all Schemes, which are under Voluntary
Agencies, within their respective districts, to be co-ordinated with
their own administrations.
Finally, the local medical profession can assist a good deal in
making such Schemes successes.
It may be added that the Notification of Births (Extension) Act,
1915, which came into force throughout the country on 1st
September, 1915, will assist Local Authorities in the work of
maternity and child welfare by making compulsorily notifiable
all births within 36 hours of their occurrences, assuming, of
course, that proper use is made of such information by subsequent
administrative procedure and action on the part of such Local
Authorities.
(b) Local Considerations.
So much for the general aspect of the subject, which now must
be considered from the point of view of the particular requirements
of the Borough of Lambeth.
The question naturally arises, What has been done in Lambeth,
in connection with this important subject of Maternity and Child
Welfare, and what more (if anything) is needed, having regard
to the new national conditions ? A most satisfactory answer can
be given at once to the first half of the question by simply
enumerating the known Agencies that are already at work within
the Borough both Official, i.e., that are under the direct control
of the Council, and Non-Official or Voluntary, i.e., that are