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8
PREVENTION OF INFANTILE MORTALITY.
Work with a view to improving the physique of infants and reducing the infantile death-rate is
carried out by the Council's Health Visitors and a number of voluntary agencies. During the year the
three Health Visitors* have been to the homes of 2,048 newly-born infants, and have paid 3,922 visits
or re-visits for the purpose of giving advice in infant management. The first visit is as far as may be
possible timed to take place between the 10th and 20th day after the birth of the child, and if the
midwife or doctor in charge of the case has ceased attending a printed card of advice is left with the
mother. The printed instructions are explained and notes are made on the health of the child and the
condition of its home. If the infant is making progress in a satisfactory home, and especially if
the mother's previous history as to the ability to nurse and rear her children is good, a second
visit may not be necessary. Where, as in the case of a first baby, the mother is in need of further
advice, re-visits are paid according to the necessities of each case. Inquiries are also made in the
homes of infants who die before the age of 12 months or who are notified as still-born. Necessitous
mothers are referred to one of the three dinner centres. Hospital letters are obtained for ailing
infants whose parents cannot afford to pay for medical advice, and the fullest use is made of the
assistance offered to mothers of the poorer classes by various philanthropic agencies in the Borough.
In 315 instances, infants in the Wornington Road district have been referred to the Lancaster
Road School for Mothers, and have been visited from the outset by the hospital nurse attached to
the School.

In the northern half of the Borough there are now four " schools for mothers " maintained by
voluntary contributions, at three of which any necessitous woman who is nursing her baby can obtain
a dinner in the middle of the day at a cost of one penny. At each school weekly consultations
are also held and are attended both by nursing mothers and the mothers of bottle-fed babies. At
these consultations each baby is weighed and at three schools the weighing is carried out by the
Council's Health Visitors, who attend once a week for this purpose, and for the purpose of giving
advice. At the fourth school advice is given to the mothers by a lady who is a qualified medical
practitioner, and Dr. Carter attends once a week at the other schools to see any child whose progress
is not satisfactory. At all four centres sewing classes are held and lectures on infant care are given.
In three schools cooking classes have been organised.
* Miss MacKay, the Health Visitor for No. 2 District, was absent for the first 3½ months of the year on nursing duties
in connection with the Army, and Miss Whitbread. the Health Visitor (temporary) for No. 3 District, resigned her appointment
in July to take up a similar position.