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33
Post Natal.
4. Arrangements for—
(1) The treatment in a hospital of complications arising
after parturition, whether in the mother or in the
infant.
(2) The provision of systematic advice and treatment for
infants at a Baby Clinic or Infant Dispensary.
(3) The continuance of these clinics and dispensaries, so as
to be available for children up to the age when they are
entered on a school register, i.e., the register of a Public
Elementary School, Nursery School, Creche, Day
Nursery, School for Mothers, or other school.
(4) The systematic home visitation of infants and of children
not on a school register as above defined.
The object of the Board is to secure an extension |and systema.
tisation of all measures hitherto adopted (to a greater of lesser
degree) for the prevention of infantile mortality and the general
welfare of children will also be improved and the proper treatment
of mothers (before, at, and after confinement) secured. For carrying
out the work properly, the first step is the appointment of an
adequate Staff of Health Visitors (properly qualified and experienced)
and the establishment and maintenance of properly officered consultation
centres, to be called Maternity Centres, and to act in
conjunction with the Midwives,authorities, and maternity hospitals.
Grants are also made to institutions of the nature of Schools
for Mothers by the Board of Education, such institutions having
primarily an educational object, viz., the training and instruction
for mothers in the care and management of infants and little
children, in the form of systematic classes, or home visiting, or
infant consultations.
In so far as the Borough of Lambeth is concerned, the work
of the Public Health Department connected with the reduction
of infantile mortality and the general improvement of infantile
and child.health has been continued during 1914, but no steps
have yet been taken with a view to amalgamating the Council's
work and that of the many various Public Maternity and Women's
and Children's Hospitals and other voluntary agencies, such as the
North Lambeth Babies'Care, Johanna and Royal Streets' Institutes,
Moffat Institute School for Mothers, Wyndham Day Nurseries,
etc., under one comprehensive scheme. It may be mentioned
that such voluntary agencies are working in conjunction with the
Council's Health Department, many of the voluntary officials
(Health Visitors, Nurses, etc.), reporting direct to the Medical
Officer of Health of the Borough on the official forms in use in the
Public Health Department.