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137
expectant mothers and therefore to only about 17 per cent. of
the total confinements. Moreover, despite the number of expectant
mothers at the ante-natal clinics, it is to be regretted
that their attendances only amount to 3.2 per mother compared
with the 10 routine attendances laid down as desirable in the
Interim Report of the Departmental Committee on Maternity
Mortality and Morbidity. No doubt part of the explanation is
that some mothers so not attend the Clinic early enough, while
others also receive some ante-natal examinations from the midwife
or other midwifery agency they have engaged, but even
allowing for this there is obvious need for more regular medical
supervision. There are special difficulties in the case of the
mother of several children. The woman expecting her first
baby or the mother with one baby is better able to spare the time
to attend a Welfare Centre, and being inexperienced has a stronger
motive for doing so, than the mother of a young family, who is
usually so occupied with domestic duties that she finds it difficult
to attend the Centre, especially if it is at some distance. This
practical aspect of the matter has led me to give detailed consideration
to the adequacy of our Welfare Centres.
From a study of the figures of attendances at the Centres
from the different Health Visitors' districts, it is evident that
distance plays an important part in the matter, the lowest attendance
being from District K (extending from The Oval to Goldsmiths
Row and across Hackney Road embracing the area between
St. Peter Street, Old Bethnal Green Road and Teesdale Street)
which is farthest from any Centre. I find also that from a study
of the provision of Welfare Centres in other London boroughs
that Bethnal Green does not compare favourably. Judged by
acreage per child welfare centre, there are fifteen boroughs better
provided, including the four neighbouring boroughs. The deficiency
in the number of centres (the distance factor) may be
somewhat made up for by the frequency of the sessions and the
adequacy of the medical staffing (the convenience and waiting
time factors) but even here there are twelve boroughs with more
child welfare doctors' sessions than Bethnal Green and as many
as seventeen with more ante-natal sessions, proportionate to
births.
Owing chiefly to the difficulty of finding suitable sites, there
has hitherto been no deliberate planning of our welfare centres
according to the actual needs of the borough. The existing
centres have just been established where there happened to be
an available site and this has been used to the fullest possible
extent. The number of centres has remained unchanged since
1922, when the centres taken over from the Voluntary Committee
were closed and the work concentrated in the main building
at Cornwall Road and a hired centre in the West Ward (first
Thornton Hall, then St. Matthew's Institute). The time has