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This scheme as it stands would require the provision of a
properly qualified medical man as well as a couple of fully trained
nurses, a couple of Health Visitors, also a suitably equipped
building.
Either scheme would also require the provision of one or more
clerks to keep the full records which would be handed on to the
school authorities after the child goes on the school register.
The 'Ante-Natal' and 'Natal' schemes of the Local Government
Board would require very careful consideration because it
will be difficult to get anything like a complete list of expectant
mothers. Further, if there is too much fussy interference there is
a danger that the process of child-birth may become to be looked
upon as a species of illness instead of a perfectly normal physiological
process, and such a frame of mind would not be at all conducive
to the production of healthy children. Provision need only be
made for mothers who cannot take advantage of the benefits of
the National Insurance Act under which the advice of a qualified
medical man is always available.
There are at present two institutions in the Borough which are
carrying on work among mothers and infants. One is the Bermondsey
Settlement, Farncombe Street, and the other the Princess Club,
Jamaica Road. The work of the former consists in educating
prospective mothers in the hygiene of pregnancy, and also later in
the management of their infants. There are four branches in
different parts of the Borough, and the average weekly attendance
is seventy-two. It was founded in 1908.
The Babies' Class at the Princess Club was formed last July,
and is more of a baby clinic on the lines of the Local Government
Board scheme. There are two qualified lady doctors in attendance
twice a week, and the children are given treatment. The average
attendance is twenty. At present the quarters originally intended
for this are being used as a hospital and the clinic has been removed
to St. James' Mission Hall, Alexis Street."
Since writing the above report certain considerations brought
about by the war have forced themselves more insistently upon
me. We are at present as a nation passing through what is probably
the greatest crisis in our history and if we are to be successful must
continue to pour into the field every man of military age we can
spare. This will necessarily entail during and after the war a