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42
BIRTH CONTROL.
During the year, the Ministry of Health issued a
further circular with regard to Birth Control, slightly
extending the grounds on which women suffering from
definite ill-health may be afforded contraceptive advice
at clinics established by local authorities. The Council
were, however, of opinion that this still leaves unprovided
for a large number of women whose health
is impaired not by any particular disease but by
poverty, often accentuated by unduly frequent pregnancies.
Where a woman has already borne 3 or 4
children and the family income is insufficient to
provide adequately for them, it seems contrary both
to public policy and to the interests of the mother and
children that further children should be born. The
Council were of opinion that contraceptive advice
should be available for such mothers at municipal
birth control clinics if they wish to avail themselves
of it—an opinion in which I concur—and the Minister
of Health was accordingly requested to allow municipal
birth control clinics to deal with such cases.
As will be seen from the following report, the
Council's Clinic is fulfilling an increasingly useful
service, even within the present restrictions.
MOTHERS' CLINIC.
Dr. Horton reports :
Two factors have increased the scope of the work of this
clinic in 1934. The first was the decision of the Public Health
Committee that the session might be held every month instead
of every two months, and the second was the issue of Circular
1408 by the Ministry of Health on May 31st. It has been
possible in consequence to give the mothers more opportunity
of seeking advice and to offer treatment to many who had
previously been referred to other clinics where the work is
not confined within the terms of the Memorandum of the
Ministry of Health. The equipment of the clinic has been
improved and there are 4 cubicles for examination and
treatment.
The average attendance per session is nearly as high as
last year. Three-quarters of the new mothers had attempted