London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
London County Council 1951
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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50
CARE OF MOTHERS AND YOUNG CHILDREN
Administration
During the year the task of maintaining and improving the personal health
service was continued. The day to day administration of these services has been
continued by the nine divisional health committees. Elected and co-opted members
of these committees have regularly visited health establishments in their divisions.
The divisional medical officer is responsible through his administrative staff for the
co-ordination of the personal services in his area.
Maternity and child welfare centres
Details of changes in centres and of the commencement of maternity and child
welfare services at the Queens Road Centre, Peckham, will be found in the
section on Health Service Premises, page 39.
Maternity and child welfare services
The following table shows the number of attendances at child welfare and anteand
post-natal sessions which were held during 1949, 1950 and 1951. It will be
noted that attendances at ante-natal sessions have continued to decline. There has
been an increase in first attendances at child welfare sessions compared with 1950,
but the total attendances have declined.
With regard to the age incidence of child attendance and the extent to which
local populations are covered, the following table shows for each division attendances
and children attending per 1,000 population in the age groups under one and one to
four years. It will be seen that 82 per cent. of children attended a centre at least
once in their first year of life; this compares with 79 per cent. in 1950. Those
children who attend in their first year do so about 14 times. It will be realised that
for eight or nine months the mother is anxious about the progress of the child, and
so she brings the baby regularly to the centre for weighing, medical advice and
mothercraft guidance. With normal progress of the child, however, attendances
thereafter tend to fall off rapidly. It will be noted that 37 per cent, of the child
| 1949 | 1950 | 1951 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First | Total | First | Total | First | Total | |
| Child Welfare | ||||||
| under 1 year | 48,489 | 683,089 | 43,916 | 649,983 | 45,534 | 626,164 |
| over 1 year | 6,641 | 282,202 | 5,496 | 245,484 | 4,540 | 235,942 |
| Special toddlers | - | 35,500 | - | 41,817 | - | 43,145 |
| Ante-natal | 29,917 | 184,018 | 26,979 | 176,993 | 24,819 | 162,667 |
| Post-natal | 5,839 | 7,486 | 5.934 | 7,255 | 5,662 | 6,860 |
| Breast feeding | 1,559 | 2,851 | 1,240 | 2,555 | 1,201 | 2,467 |
| Education and Advisory | - | 23,688 | - | 27,910 | - | 34,925 |
| Total | 92,445 | 1,218,834 | 83,565 | 1,151,997 | 81,756 | 1,112,170 |
| Foot | 9,964 | 128,055 | 10,165 | 153,687 | 10,348 | 162,163 |
| Light and massage | 6,440 | 108,545 | 6,903 | 109,013 | 6,533 | 102,692 |
| Grand Total | 108,849 | 1,455,434 | 100,633 | 1,414,697 | 98,637 | 1,377,025 |
population between one and five years attend after the first year for three or four
further visits. Special toddlers' clinics are held and special birthday postcards are
sent to mothers to remind them of the facilities for preventive advice. One fifth of
the infants who attend in response to these invitations are referred for treatment for
ailments which the parents might not otherwise have recognised.