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48
Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE.
Work of Health Visitors.
The duties of the Health Visitors are as follows:—
Infant Visiting.—Infants are visited as soon as information
of birth is received either from the Registrar or by notification,
and they are revisited four times during the first year of life unless
they are attending one of the Infant Welfare Centres, when the
revisits are made by the Centre Superintendent.
It has not been found necessary to visit systematically all
children between the ages of one and five, as they have been visited
as infants, and many of them are kept under supervision at the
Welfare Centre or by visits made by the Superintendents of the
Centres. Further opportunities for keeping observation on these
children and their homes occur when visits are made to the home for
some other purpose, as for instance, for a case of infectious disease.
Children known to be unhealthy are visited regularly.
Infectious Disease.—All cases of Puerperal Fever and
Ophthalmia Neonatorum are visited as soon as notified, as well as all
known cases of Whooping Cough, Measles, Pneumonia, and Diarrhoea
in children under five. Cases of infectious disease above the age of
five are dealt with by the male Sanitary Inspectors.
The Health Visitors visit the homes of mothers attending the
ante-natal Centres in the Borough, and those women applying for
admission to the Borough Council's Maternity Home, the General
Lying-in Hospital, the maternity ward of St. Thomas's Hospital
and several other hospitals. Home visits are also made for investigating
applications for milk under the Milk (Mothers and
Children) Order.
One of the Health Visitors is present at each Infant Welfare or
ante-natal Clinic, and some of them attend the Welfare Committee
meetings. They also pay periodical visits to the Creches and homes
for unmarried mothers and children.
The following Table summarises the work of the Health
Visitors during the year in the six divisions of the Borough. The
total visits and revisits under each heading are given in the last two
columns of the Table, and the work in connection with the Welfare
Centres and Creches in the lower part of the Table.