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Maternity and Child Welfare.
During the year the Local Government Board issued a circular on
Maternity and Child Welfare.
I understand from this and from interviews with officials of the
Board that it is desired that we extend the scope of the work we are
already doing in infant care, and this Council is offered every encouragement
in the way of a grant in carrying out this work.
The Medical Officer to the Board states in his Third Report on
Infantile Mortality that the ideal condition of things " is that each
mother should be able to receive medical advice during pregnancy at
an ante-natal clinic ; that she should be advised during the lying-in period
by the doctor or midwife, and that subsequent visits should be made by
the health visitor at intervals determined by the needs of each child.
These visits should be supplemented by the work of an Infant Welfare
centre until the child begins to attend school."
Supervision of infant welfare and health visiting in connection with
the Notification of Births Act is now the routine practice in the
borough. Since the details of the work are, I feel certain, insufficiently
realised, it appears desirable to set forth the main features of health
visiting. These have been described by Dr. Lane Claypon in a
memorandum issued by the Local Government Board, as follows:—
The health visitor is primarily concerned with infants, but it is
important that her work should be looked at from a broad point of
view and should include any features which may affect the well-being
of the child before or after birth.
In the first place it is desirable to emphasise the value of ante-natal
work, and to indicate briefly the line which may suitably be followed
at this period with a view to safeguarding the infant's life and its future
welfare.
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