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29
MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE.
The year was a busy one in the re-organisation of the work of the infant welfare centres.
Changes had become necessary owing to a diminution in the number of births suitable for welfare
attention in the Archer Street and Campden Hill areas, and the removal of hundreds of families
from basements and overcrowded rooms in the Golborne district to the new flats at Dalgarno Gardens.
At the end of September, the area hitherto served by the Archer Street centre was handed over
to the Lancaster Road centre committee. The Archer Street premises, which were originally the
freehold property of Mrs. Sidney Brown and were eventually placed in the hands of trustees, are
now being transferred to the borough council, who will thus shortly be in possession of well equipped
and appointed premises which will be of considerable value to the maternity and child welfare scheme.
The premises are centrally situated on a bus route, thus making them easy of access. When the
transfer is completed, the maternity and child welfare committee, with the assistance of the
advisory committee, will consider how this magnificent gift can best be used in the interests of the
mothers and children of Kensington.
During the year, information came to hand that the infant welfare centre on Campden Hill
was situated on a site which was required by the London county council for the purposes of erecting
a new school. In view of the decreased amount of infant welfare work in this area, it was decided
that there would be no justification for establishing a new centre under an independent committee
to take the place of the one to be disbanded, and that the work at Campden Hill could well be
performed by the South Kensington centre. Arrangements have therefore been made for the
Campden Hill area to be linked up with the South Kensington centre area and for the committee of
that centre to maintain a branch centre in St. George's Hall, Kensington Place.
Towards the end of the year, Mrs. Sidney Brown presented to the council the freehold premises
at No. 10, Redcliffe Street, South Kensington, which had been equipped by her to serve as an
infant welfare centre. These premises are more suitable than those already occupied by the South
Kensington centre committee at No. 5, Warwick Road, and arrangements have been made for that
committee to transfer to the new house. Mrs. Sidney Brown's generosity provides South Kensington
with much more satisfactory premises for this important work than have hitherto been
available.
In the early part of 1931 the Raymede infant welfare centre committee established a branch
centre at Dalgarno Gardens to serve the needs of those who were then about to occupy the 540
Sutton Trust flats which had recently been erected. At the present time many hundreds of
additional flats are being built at Dalgarno Gardens by the Sutton Trust, the Peabody Donation
Fund and the Kensington Housing Trust, with the result that there is a considerable increase in the
work for the branch centre. The Raymede centre committee have come to the conclusion that this
branch centre should be an independent unit with its own committee, and they have asked the borough
council to make arrangements for this change to be effected as soon as possible.
Under the council's scheme of maternity and child welfare work, complete arrangements are
made for the care of expectant and nursing mothers and for children up to five years of age. The
scheme includes ante-natal clinics, infant welfare consultations, day nurseries, a maternity home,
the provision of an obstetric consultant for difficult cases, hospital and convalescent treatment,
home nursing and home helps, facilities for the skilled nursing and treatment of cases of puerperal
sepsis, and the supply of extra nourishment in necessitous cases. During the year the council
inaugurated a further scheme for the boarding-out of children in order to permit the mother of a
family to enter hospital for her confinement where this is necessary for medical reasons, or because
the home conditions are unsuitable. The scheme is conducted on the same lines as that for the
provision of home helps, and when an application is approved, payment at the rate of 12s. 6d. per
week towards the maintenance of each child is made by the council, provided that the services
rendered are certified as satisfactory by the medical officer of health.
The ante-natal services, which were not being fully utilised by the expectant mothers in the
borough, were reorganised during 1934, and a whole-time ante-natal medical officer was appointed
and commenced duty on the 1st July. A greatly improved co-ordination between the maternity
and child welfare institutions, the maternity hospitals and the local midwives has already been
obtained, the attendances at the clinics have increased, and the number of sessions has been
augmented. A weekly evening session has been instituted to enable working mothers to obtain
medical advice and supervision.