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59
Maternity and Child Welfare
The following Scheme was submitted to the Public Health Committee.—
Public Health Department.
To the Chairman and Members of the
Public Health Committee.
Gentlemen,
Maternity and Child Welfare and School for Mothers.
The importance, especially at the present time, of preserving infant
life and the health of mothers and young children is obvious. The terse
question is often asked, can many of the infants who now die during the
first year of life be saved and other children reared with a better chance
of attaining a healthy adult age by anything a Local Authority can do?
It would be a sad and distressing thing if the answer to such a vital
question were not in the affirmative. The Local Government Board and
its officers hold firmly the opinion that a Local Authority working on
well established and judicious lines can do much in saving infant life.
The Local Government Board has sketched out a plan which it declares
will materially assist in the direction desired. Before referring to this
plan I should like to state what is the present condition of our borough.
The greater part of the Borough of Southwark is residential in
character, and the population is chiefly a working-class one engaged in
work away from the district, but coming home to sleep. The Borough
of Southwark has been aptly described as the chief nursery of South
London. The birth-rate is consequently high when compared with other
Metropolitan Boroughs. In the last tabulated year (1914) 5,604 births
were registered in the borough. The infant death-rate was 123 to every
1,000 births; that is to say that nearly one child in every eight born died
under one year of age. This is a high rate of mortality. In comparison
with the other twenty-eight Sanitary Authorities, Southwark stands
twenty-fifth on the list, taking number one as the borough having the
smallest infant death-rate: It has been authoritatively stated that no
Authority should be satisfied if the infant death-rate exceeds 75 deaths
in every 1,000 births annually. Huddersfield is a striking example of
what can be done by a borough deeply interested in this subject.
The scheme proposed by the Local Government Board can be
brought into operation in the Borough of Southwark by a charge on the
rates of only £120 a year. The entire scheme is now practically working