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50
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,
Whooping Cough and Ophthalmia Neonatorum are visited on
notification, as well as all known cases of Measles, 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