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attended and one very encouraging feature about them is the
number of mothers who some saying that-they are feeding their
children according to the directions given by the Health Visitors,
This shows that the mothers are coming to regard Health
Visitors not as Inspectors to criticise and fxnd fault but as
friends to comfort, encourage and help. This shows too the
tact and kindlinoss of the Health Visitors. With regard to
the Plumstead Centre, the waiting room is really too small for
the mothers who come. Many go away when they come and see the
room full. Sewing classes for mothers have been started at
Plumstead but at present not many women attend.
2. ANTE-NATAL CLINICS. There are now Ante-Natal Clinics
in connection with each Infant Consultation centre. At these
Clinics expectant and nursing mothers are seen and given advice
as to how to keep themselves in health. They are helped with
milk and dinners if necessary. Any who are found ill are
advised to see a doctor or to go to hospital. These Clinics
are not nearly so well attended as they should be. Until it
is possible to get better supervision of the mothers before the
birth of their children, we shall never get the best results in
the saving of infant and maternal lives. At present it is
difficult to find these women. There is no way of getting them
except through doctors, midwives, or accidentally.
The sympathy and co-operation of the midwives is of
great importance and a good deal of time has been spent visiting
and talking to them in the hope that if they know better what
we are doing they will see that these clinics instead of hampering
them, ought to be a great help to them. The life of a
midwife is hard"; she is often misunderstood and unjustly blamed,
and as a result she is apt to be distrustful of anything she
does not understand. If they would co-operate more, as I feel
they will in time, all the work, both theirs and ours, would be
benefited. We have formed an association of midwives, which
is a branch of the Midwives Institute and which meets on the
last Friday of every month. At these Meetings questions of
interest are discussed, and, as some of the members have asked
for classes, we are hoping to arrange same for them.
3. WOOLWICH DAY NURSERY. This nursery is visited by
me one morning a week. It was originally for the children of
munition workers, and before the Armistice it was over-full.
To that I attribute the fact that the children did not get on
as well as they should have done. They are doing better now
when the number of children averages 33, or only about half as
many as were there before November. Influenza attacked both
the Staff and the children, and the nursery had to be closed
for throe weeks. There have been no other epidemic diseases
there. The opening of Perran Lodge, to which the children
who are ailing may be sent, is a great boon.
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