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1908]
14
the Medical Officer of Health within 36 hours, w hereas, previously, information
of a birth might not be received for six weeks—the statutory time within which
registration of births must be effected. At the end of November, 1908, the
Local Government Board had sanctioned the adoption of this action in 119
urban districts, laying it down in each case that suitable arrangements should
be made for the employment of health visitors, voluntary or official. Such health
visitors exist in about 150 districts. The health visitor visits the houses in the
poorer districts from which a notification has been received, and advises the
mother as to the best means of feeding the infant and as to the general hygiene
of infancy. Breast-feeding is strongly advocated; where this is impossible,
careful instructions are given for the artificial feeding of the infant, and the
home is re-visited to encourage the carrying out of the instructions."
None of this work can be done in Islington because the health visitors are
non-existent, and \et the Act is in force and there is "imposed upon parents
and others the obligation of notifying births," although no "steps are taken to
carry out the ultimate object of the measure, viz., the giving of advice and
instruction to those who have charge of the infants." Recollecting the
intention with which the Act was passed and the object which the Local
Government Board had in view, it has been a matter of surprise to the Medical
Officer of Health that its adoption by the Borough Council was ever
sanctioned.
The advice of the Medical Officer of Health to the Council has been put
forward in a long report, in which he maintained that three official health
visitors are required in Islington, and now, after the expiration of eighteen
months—and with much more experience—he is still of that opinion.
The instructions on the care and feeding of infants, to which allusion was
made above, are as follows :—
METROPOLITAN BOROUGH OF ISLINGTON.
THE CARE AND FEEDING OF INFANTS.
1.—The Mother's Health.
The mother's health is most important.
She should therefore take greatest care of it both before and after the
baby's birth.
She should take regular gentle walking exercise in the open air, so as to
keep herself strong and robust.