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12
MIDWIFERY SERVICES.
The Local Supervising Authority under the Midwives Act
is the Middlesex County Council.
There are 28 Midwives, including the Municipal Midwife,
notified to the Middlesex County Council as practising in the
Borough, 10 of whom reside outside the Borough.
The Municipal Midwife attended 147 births, in addition to
79 ante-natal clinics held at the Welfare Centres—Brook Road,
Wightman Road, Church Road, Highgate, and Coldfall Clinic.
One of the conditions upon which the Council's Midwife accepts
a case is that the expectant mother shall attend an ante-natal
clinic.
A reduction of her fee was made in 45 necessitous cases.
1,572 births have been attended by the Borough Midwife since
the appointment was first made in 1922.
MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE.
The work of the Maternity and Child Welfare Department
is organised round four centres in the Borough, particulars of
which are set out in tabular form in this Report. At each of
these centres the main objective or ideal constantly pursued is
to give advice to the mothers of healthy infants how to keep
them healthy and bring them up to school age strong, welldeveloped
boys and girls. They are not in any sense treatment
centres or centres for ailing infants and children. The advice
given by the Medical Officers at the centres is followed up by
advice given by the Health Visitors in the homes.
An important feature of the work at the centres is the
invaluable support of the voluntary workers, some of whom have
given their services ever since the centres started. They,
indeed, were the pioneers in starting the centres, and it must be
a source of satisfaction to them specially to see from week to
week the high standard of infant hygiene and nutrition attained.
These good results are obtained by a majority of mothers, in
spite of quite slender resources, and reflect great credit on the
mothers themselves.