View report page

mother begin. At present she is dependent for advice on the
'Gamp' who attends her at her confinement or on some relative
who bases her claim to knowledge of infants on having had a large
family, often with a high infantile mortality. So far I have only
mentioned what is the most important work of health visitors, but
there are many other duties which fall to their lot. Up to the age of
three to four, when children come under the school authorities, it
should be the aim of the health visitor to keep in touch with the
families of her district, and give advice when sought, especially
in the many infectious diseases to which young children are liable,
to encourage the mother to seek advice as to feeding and clothing at
the municipal babies' classes or one of the many voluntary agencies
doing similar work in our midst, and now that most of the infectious
diseases to which children are liable, including the very fatal disease
of measles, are compulsorily notifiable she will have her field of
utility much extended. A small portion of her time as heretofore
may also be very usefully given to visitation of cases of consumption
among the adult population.
"To sum up then: (1) There is a waste of actual and potential
human lives up to the end of the first year of life, calculated for Bermondsey
as over 1,000 per annum, which by appropriate means can
be largely prevented, and the first step towards this end is to appoint
a sufficient number of health visitors to instruct mothers and prospective
mothers; and (2) the duties of these ladies should consist
in visiting women before and immediately after a birth, and giving
such instruction and advice as will help to secure healthy children
coming into the world and keeping them when they are here.
"The question of their visiting cases of measles, as suggested
by the Local Government Board, is one that requires consideration,
and I have some doubts as to the wisdom, except in an emergency,
of their visiting houses where there is infectious disease while undertaking
the duties mentioned above. They will also, in co-operation
with the tuberculosis dispensary, keep the consumptive adults under
supervision, so as to limit the disease in advanced cases and advise
such steps as will conduce to the recovery of the early ones. Such
work as here sketched, conscientiously carried out, will soon bear
fruit in a saving of life and raising the standard of health.
E2
67