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17
child. In no case was the Council asked to make a contribution towards the cost of caring
for an illegitimate child placed with a foster mother in the district.
Child Life Protection.
During the course of the year 12 women notified their intention to accept foster children,
and these notifications were in respect of 17 children. All the Council's Health Visitors are
also designated as Infant Life Protection Visitors, and in the course of supervision they paid
282 visits. One woman was prosecuted for accepting a foster child without prior notification
to this authority, and was fined £1 with £1 Is. costs.
Care of premature infants.
Doctors and nurses notifying births of children have been requested to inform the
Medical Officer of Health of the weight of the child at birth, and in most cases they have cooperated
in this respect. Prematurity to-day is not deemed to exist in accordance with date
of birth of the child as compared with expected time of confinement. What matters most is
not whether a child has been born one month or two months before the expected time; but
its weight at birth, and babies are considered to be premature when their birth weight is
5£ lb. or less.
From information received it appeared that 49 children weighed under 5½ lb. at birth.
Eleven were born at home of whom one died, and 37 in hospital of.whom seven died. Therefore
40 out of the 48 survived. Children who were designated as premature in accordance with
the above were visited frequently by the Council's Health Visitors, and monthly reports submitted
to the Medical Officer of Health until such time as they weighed 8 lb.
Hay Nurseries.

It is usual to have on the rolls of each nursery 20 per cent, more children than the
nursery can actually accommodate, as it is found that attendance of young children in nurseries
is low owing to the incidence of minor maladies and infectious conditions and other causes of
irregular attendance. There is a big demand for day nursery accommodation in the borough,
and in actual fact at the end of the year there were some 333 children awaiting admission to
these nurseries.
Primarily day nursery provision is intended for the admission of children whose mothers
are working; during the war in order to meet labour scarcity on account of military service,
and during present peace conditions to meet the need for labour for export and other purposes.
Day nursery provision must, therefore, be of such a nature as to provide for the care of
children during all those hours when their mothers are at work, and must be distinguished
from nursery school provision which is in accord with infant school timetables. It is intended
that when the needs of mothers who are working have been met that excess provision may be