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Voluntary Visitors.—This year, as heretofore, the work of the Public Health
Department, as regards Infant mortality prevention, and all the consequently
necessary clerical work, has been usefully supplemented by means of a number
of fully qualified women-workers, who were desirous of having practical experience
in St. Paneras.
All of those who applied to come and who were accepted as suitable proved
themselves to be capable and enthusiastic workers.
The majority of them only stayed for about three months, before being
successful in gaining salaried appointments elsewhere as Sanitary Inspectors
or Health Visitors, &c., viz., Miss Anderson, Willesden; Miss Cossens, Monmouthshire
C.C. Schools; Miss Hartland, Bradford; Miss Muirhead, City of
London; Miss Ryan, Bradford; Miss Sharpe, Macclesfield; Miss Thorpe, King's
Norton; Miss Urquliart, Bradford; Miss Wright, Leicester. Miss McJannet
left to do voluntary work L.C.C. Care Committees; and Miss, Day to take the
Sanitary Inspectors' Board Certificate.
It was with great regret and sorrow that we learned of the death (under an
anaesthetic) of one of our former voluntary visitors, Miss Herskind, who
through her sweetness of disposition had endeared herself to all who knew her.
Mode of Visiting.—The homes visited this year being all (with the exception
of about 120) in Ward VI. (Somers Town) were more uniform in character,
and more uniformly poverty-stricken than has been the case in previous years
when the visits were distributed more evenly over the various districts of the
Borough.
The nature of the questions included in the Home Office Inquiry Form made
it even more important than usual that we should approach the mothers with
the greatest delicacy and tact; and I always urged the importance of this on
each new voluntary visitor, pointing out that if it were a question of the one or
the other being sacrificed it would be preferable to fail to get statistical
evidence rather than to lose our hitherto friendly relations with the parents.
Number of Births, Visits, &c.
Total Births (excluding still-births) registered (majority within
2 months) . . . . . . . . 5546
Births (including 120 still births) notified (majority within 36
hours), from week ending March 14th, 1908, to week ending
January 4th, 1909 . . .. . . 2960
Advice Cards sent same day as receipt of notification, and
to cases not notified on receipt of registration. . . . 5600
Number of visits paid:— . . . . .. . . 1732
( Actual number of Infants visited . . 654
i.e ( Additional visits to Infants* . . 1078
* Of the Infants " not known " at address given 23
Infants " removed " from address given 38
Extra visits paid by myself to Hospitals, Doctors, Midwives,
Nurses, Creches, Maternity Missions, Almoners, Relieving
Officers, Workhouse, Infirmary, Employment Exchange,
Distress Committee Office, Schools for Mothers, C.O.S.,
National Health Society, Sanitary Institute, &c. . . *358
*This number would have been considerably higher, if it could have included all
the "visits" which had perforce, for press of time, to be replaced by letters and
interviews at the Town Hall.