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Inquiries are also made in the homes of infants who die before the age of 12 months or who are
notified as still-born. The information obtained in this way has been summarised in the tables
dealing with the causes of infantile mortality, and has already been fully discussed. Necessitous
mothers are referred to one of the three dinner centres. Hospital letters are obtained for ailing
infants whose parents cannot afford to pay for medical advice, and the fullest use is made of the
assistance offered to mothers of the poorer classes by various philanthropic agencies in the Borough.
In 469 instances, infants in the Wornington Road district have been referred to the Lancaster
Road School for Mothers, and have been visited from the outset by the hospital nurse attached to
the School.
In the northern half of the Borough there are now four "schools for mothers" maintained
by voluntary contributions, at three of which any necessitous woman who is nursing her baby can
obtain a dinner in the middle of the day at a cost of one penny. At each school weekly
consultations are also held and are attended both by nursing mothers and the mothers of bottle-fed
babies. At these consultations each baby is weighed and at three schools the weighing is carried
out by the Council's Health Visitors, who attend once a week for this purpose, and for the purpose
of giving advice. At the fourth school advice is given to the mothers by a lady who is a qualified
medical practitioner, and Dr. Carter attends once a week at the other schools to see any child
whose progress is not satisfactory. At all four centres sewing classes are held and lectures on
infant care are given. In three schools cooking classes have been organised. In a period of 12
months more than 800 mothers have attended the infant consultations at one or other of the four
centres. The total number of dinners supplied to expectant or nursing mothers during the year
amounted to 31,000. Special mention should also be made of the extension of the schemes by
which children at any age under 5 years may now be brought to the "infant" consultations at
the Bramley Road, Lancaster Road and Raymede Street Schools.
Through the close connection which exists between the schools for mothers and the Public
Health Department, overlapping is avoided and a system has been established which has
undoubtedly played an important part as one of the direct causes of the recent decline in the
infantile death-rate. Mention should also be made of the important services rendered to infants
and young children during the past two years by the Baby Clinic in the Telford Road.
The object of the Clinic is to provide free medical and surgical treatment for children from
birth up to 5 years of age. During the year 1,210 children received treatment, the treatment
being dental in 151 cases, and the attendances numbered 5,382. Arrangements have been made
whereby children with skin troubles, discharging ears and other compaints requiring frequent
skilled attention are treated daily by a trained nurse at the Clinic. As the results obtained
have shown this daily attention has proved to be of the greatest value. Ninety-two minor
operations mostly for the removal of tonsils and adenoids have also been performed.
At tnree months 69 per cent. of the infants attending were breast, fed, as compared with 72
per cent. in 1909, and 75 per cent. in 1910 reported by the Health Visitors among infants of the
same age. In 1911 at the age of 6 months, 68 per cent. were reported by the Health Visitors as
breast fed. The figures for the Clinic are probably lower for the earlier age because it is the
artifically fed who are more prone to sickness. In any case among the working classes there is
no such thing as weaning to save trouble and allow the mother more freedom. Of the mothers
who weaned their babies before the age of 3 months, 18 per cent. are reported to have found
that their millk went when they got about. There is, however, no class in which women do not
have the same experience, so that it would be by no means safe to assume that any considerable
number of the poorer mothers lost their milk as the direct result of poverty.
Twenty-five per cent. of the children attending the Clinic are reported as living in basements,
as compared with the much smaller proportion of 9 to 17 per cent. reported in the years 1912 and
1913 by the Council's Health Visitors. The proportion of tenement houses with basements is
probably greater in the neighbourhood of the Clinic than in the Borough as a whole, and as in .
the case of the artificially fed, it is not improbable that these children from basements contribute more
than their proper share to the sick rate for the Borough.