View report page

33
MEMORANDUM.
MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE.
A complete scheme would comprise the following elements, each of which will in this
connection, be organised in its direct bearing on infantile health.
1. Arrangements for the local supervision of Midwives.
2. Arrangements for—
(1) An Ante-natal Clinic for expectant mothers.
(2) The home visiting of expectant mothers.
Ante-Natal
(3) A Maternity Hospital or beds at a hospital, in which complicated cases of
pregnancy can receive treatment.
3. Arrangements for—
(1) Such assistance as may be needed to ensure the mother having skilled and
prompt attendance during confinement at home.
(2) The confinement of sick women, including women having contracted pelvis
or suffering from any other condition involving danger to the mother or
infant, at a hospital.
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 Nurgery, School for Mothers or other School.
(4) The systematic home visitation of infants and of children not on a school
register as above defined.
Local Government Board,
Whitehall, S.W.
July, 1914.
In consequence of this Circular and Memorandum, a report on the subject
from the Medical Officer of Health was asked for. This was presented to the
Public Health Committee in April, 1915, and the following statement of the
position in St. Pancras in regard to the matter is largely a reproduction of the
report.
Apart from the supervision of Midwives, which in London is in the hands
not of the Borough Councils but of the County Council (thus splitting the
local responsibility for maternity welfare), the model scheme of the Local
Government Board includes :—
(1) The home visiting of mothers and young children.
Post-Natal.