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some years, it has been found at the Council's centres more economical
in time, both for the medical officers and the mothers, for the elder
children to be seen at the same sessions as the babies. As previously
mentioned, the Council in the early part of the year appointed medical
officers separately for ante-natal clinics and for children's clinics, thus
enabling more time to be devoted to the children's clinics.
Day Nurseries.—The Minister emphasised the need for Day Nurseries
in certain areas. The Council has long been fully aware of the urgent
need for increased day nursery accommodation in a district where the
demand for women's employment is so great, and has encouraged and
actively assisted the voluntary association who conduct the present day
nursery for 40 children by making a substantial annual contribution.
The Council, as a further mark of appreciation, is engaged in building a
new day nursery for the association with accommodation for between
80 and 90 children as part of the new scheme for a maternity and child
welfare centre. A few resident children are also being provided for in
cases, for instance, where the mother has to go into hospital for treatment.
It is contemplated that it will be possible to organise nursery classes at
the new building for children of the toddler age.
Notes by the Medical Officers at the Council's Maternity and Child
Welfare Centres.
Infant Welfare Centre, Marshall Street. Dr. A. Doyne Bell.
The list of the names of families attending the clinics at the Marshall Street
Welfare Centre is striking for its variety of nationality. Here are Italian, Cypriot,
French, Indian, German, Chinese, Greek names which would lead one to expect the
waiting rooms to resemble with some exactitude the water-front at Marseilles. But
in fact the clinics, though they have a strong foreign seasoning, are in the main
visited by mothers whose parents are purely British. These girls have married into
that polyglot colony in the heart of the City of Westminster which is known as
Soho. Soho is commonly regarded as the Italian quarter of London, and it is true
that a great number of Italians attend the Marshall Street clinics and some of them,
in spite of many years in this country, speak little or no English. The fluent Italian
of one of our health visitors is, in these cases, invaluable.
The Anglo-Italian families which form a large proportion of the clinics appear
to be stable units, and the children, usually bilingual, are well cared for and brought
to the clinics with great regularity. Their progress is occasionally interrupted by
the family visit to Italy, when the heat of the climate or the excessive indulgence of
grand-parents can usually be counted on to produce a loss of weight and a dyspepsia
which has to be treated on their return.