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36
In January, 1935, the Council reduced from £3 to £2 the minimum fee for the fortnight
at the Maternity Home, which is the normal duration of treatment. The highest fee charged
during 1935/36 was £6 1s. 6d. for the two weeks, and the average fee was £3 6s. 11d. The
cost per patient per week to the Council before deduction of patients' fees was £4 4s. 8d. for
the financial year 1935-36.
DAY NURSERY.
The Fulham Day Nursery is situated at Eridge House, Fulham Park Road, S.W.6.,
and is under the control of a Voluntary Committee. The Council makes a grant of £626 per
annum to the Day Nursery, in addition to providing the services of myself and the Assistant
Medical Officer for Maternity and Child Welfare, as Medical Officers. The institution is
visited by one or other of us four times weekly.
The Day Nursery was established to meet the needs of mothers who are under the
necessity of going out to work and who have no suitable person with whom to leave their
children.
Children can be left for whole or half-days, and it means much to these mothers to
know that their children are being well looked after and fed, in many cases, in a manner
which would be impossible in their own homes. Children are admitted between the ages of
six weeks and five years, and a small daily payment is required.
In every case the Matron receives a home report of the circumstances of the child, and
these reports, made by the Health Visitors, are of great value to Matron and myself.
Breast-feeding is not only encouraged but insisted upon where possible, if only partially.
All the feeding of infants is done on the principle of the use of breast standard milk;
and older children get a diet in the determination of which modern knowledge of nutrition
has been taken into account.
An open-air life is encouraged and, winter and summer, when the weather is suitable,
the children live out of doors. An old army hut in the garden makes it possible for the
children to be out even in wet weather.

SUPPLY OF MILK.
Under the provisions of the Maternity and Child Welfare Act, 1918, milk is supplied
free to necessitious nursing and expectant mothers and to children under three years of age.
The Local Authority is required by the regulations of the Ministry of Health to ascertain
that need actually exists, and a special Visitor visits the homes of applicants and reports
on the home circumstances, while the ordinary reports of the Health Visitors are also available
for reference. A special Milk Sub-Committee of the Maternity and Child Welfare Committee
meets every week to consider applications and make grants.