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35
MATERNITY & CHILD WELFARE.
The unfortunate relapse in the health records of the
Borough with regard to maternal and infant mortality,
naturally leads one to look afresh at our arrangements
for maternity and child welfare to see whether they are
adequate and efficient or whether there is some weakness
or omission which we have overlooked. In the main,
I think it probable that the increased mortality is due
to general social causes, unemployment and low wages
resulting in a reduced family income available for
necessary nourishment, clothing and shelter. Only to
a very small extent can the Maternity and Child
Welfare authority deal directly with this state of things.
Grants of milk to necessitous mothers and children have
substantially increased during the year, but such assistance
only goes a very small way to remedy the
lowered vitality which follows prolonged poverty.
The lack of any effective co-ordination between the
various (public and private) agencies for maternal and
child welfare is an unfortunate weakness in the present
situation. During the year the Council endeavoured
to obtain some small measure of co-operation with the
various maternity hospitals in which Bethnal Green
mothers are confined, in order to secure that the mothers
had better facilities for ante-natal care, but the effort
was not successful. The midwifery facilities in and
about the district are in a general way excellent, but
owing to the lack of a pre-arranged plan and a common
standard of ante-natal care it is probable that many
mothers do not in fact obtain adequate ante-natal care.
A most important step forward in the Councils
Maternity and Child Welfare scheme was the appointment,
towards the end of the year, of a full time
Medical Officer for this work, replacing several temporary
part-time officers. Another improvement has
been the hiring of rooms for a Welfare Centre at St.
Matthew's Institute, Hereford Street, in place of the