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254
Enquiry as to Industrial Employment of Married Women and
Infant Mortality, 1908-9. 90 Cases. Home Office Returns.
14th February, 1910.
To the Medical Officer of Health.
Sir,—
Respecting the sheets issued for analysis of cases, for the purpose of
the Home Office Inquiry, still-births and miscarriages are not visited, so
that no information regarding such cases is available. The cases are
taken from Bromley, Poplar, Old Ford and Victoria Park, so as to be
representative cf the whole Borough. They are all "casual-labour"
districts, very few of the men being in regular work. The average income
given is what they would have if they worked, but as 17.8 per cent. have
been in receipt of Parish Relief, and others have been working under the
Distress Committee sometime during the year, it will be seen that the
average, low as it is, is too high. The women who work at home are
match and cardboard box makers, trouser, coat and vest finishers, shirt
makers, etc. All consider five shillings a good week; out of that they
have to provide glue, cottons, etc., and use their own tools. The factory
workers are "cutters down," fillers, etc., in match factories, packers in
sweet factories. The few working "elsewhere" have done anything
from hawking to nursing their neighbours during confinement.
With regard to Habits.—None of the parents in the cases under
supervision were abstainers, but the amount of drinking, especially
amongst the women, is not to be compared with those amongst whom I
worked in Liverpool, still, it is a matter for regret that the idea of beer
being necessary to a nursing mother should be so deeply rooted. Quite a
large proportion of the mothers prepare a proper dinner for the family
when they have the means, with others, milkless tea and bread form the
chief articles of diet, except for the husband—"who must have a bit of
something, Miss."
General Cleanliness.—Here again I must judge by comparison, and
the sanitary arrangements are so infinitely superior to those in the
provincial towns in which I have worked, that it must of necessity affect
the home; the difference, to be appreciated, must be seen.
Care of Children.—In the main they are as well cared for as can be
expected. In my opinion it is impossible for any woman to give the