View report page

MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE
In order to appreciate to what extent development has taken
place during the past five years in the arrangements made for the
care of expectant and nursing mothers and children under five
years of age, it is only necessary to set out the Maternity and
Child Welfare activities at the beginning of 1921 and to compare
them with the position as it was at the end of 1925.
The scheme at January 1st, 1921, was represented by the
following: —
1. Six Voluntary Infant Welfare Centres.
2. Two Homes for Unmarried Mothers,
3. Nursing services for maternity and infectious disease cases
arising out of maternity, and illnesses in children under
5 years of age.
4. The supply of milk to necessitous mothers (expectant and
nursing) and young children.
S. Convalescent treatment in special cases for mothers after
confinement, and for some conditions in children under
5 years of age.
6. The payment of midwives' fees for services rendered to
indigent mothers.
7. A dental clinic (Cobourg Infant Welfare Centre).
The year 1921 may be said to have marked the commencement
of the changes noted in the progress of the Maternity and
Child Welfare scheme in the Borough. In May of that year the
first Municipal Centre was opened at 140, Camberwell Road, and
in the following November another at 114, Lordship Lane.
In the following year it was necessary to add another session
at the Dulwich Municipal Centre in order to relieve the congestion
at the Thursday afternoon clinic, and further, the Council
also decided to take off some of the work of the St. Luke's and
Bird-in-Bush Centres by establishing a Municipal Centre to cover
half No. 8 Ward and the whole of Ward No. 9.
In the same year, too, the Council increased the annual
grant to the Peckham, Nunhead and District Day Nursery with
a view of extending the work of the creche, and further gave
consideration to the question of providing institutional accommodation
for
1. Patients showing some abnormality either during pregnancy
or at the time of labour which calls for special
medical treatment and skill, and
2. Patients whose domestic conditions are unfavourable for
confinement in their own homes, even where a normal
labour may be expected.