View report page

50
week are not convenient for mothers in Bethnal Green, when
the week's washing and the rent and insurance collectors claim
their time.
We have continued an effort to keep the waiting time in
the Centre for the mothers and infants as short as possible,
realising the many other calls that are made on the mothers.
Model clothing and wool for making garments have been on
view at the stall, at which the Borough Midwife has given
useful instruction when her time permits. A series of health
talks has been given from time to time throughout the year
by student Health Visitors from the College of Nursing. It
is difficult to fit in systematic talks and at the same time to
help the mothers to get home as quickly as possible. Tea and
biscuits are available for any mothers who wish for them.
The results of past years of health teaching is shown in
the small number of children who attend the Centre who are
really ill. Most mothers have evidently learnt to go to their
own doctors or to hospital as soon as they notice anything
wrong but the art of mothercraft is still far from being generally
understood. Child management in all its stages and aspects
is the main problem that presents itself. In the busy life that
our mothers have to lead many expedients have to be used
that are far from being the best, although they enable the mother
to get through her day. The " dummy " and the feeding
between meals, overfeeding, stuffy rooms and insufficient sun
and fresh air, insufficient sleep, the screaming infant and the
selfwilled child, all these and many other well-known signs of
bad management are with us in numbers. While knowing
that in many cases there is good excuse for them, we know
that they can be avoided and we cannot be content with our
work in the clinics until these children are as uncommon as
the really ill child has apparently become. Mention should
be made of the minority of splendid mothers who under
similar circumstances manage their children well.
Good use has been made of the special treatment clinics
available at the Centre, the sunlight, dental, massage, etc., and
satisfactory results obtained. The efficient method of giving
milk grants to all necessitous children probably accounts for
satisfactory standard of nutrition.
Student Health Visitors and final-year medical students
from the London Hospital have attended the Centre throughout
the year as part of their examination course.
(HEREFORD STREET CENTRE.)
The majority of the mothers who have attended the
Maternity Clinic at this Centre bring their babies to the infant