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43
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 when 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 on notification, 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, as well as the homes of women
who apply for admission to the Borough Council's Maternity
Home, the General Lying-in Hospital, and the maternity ward
of St. Thomas's and 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.