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59
officers of the department at least twice a year, and by sanitary inspectors when any
structural alterations to the premises are necessary. Some of the homes are also
registered under Section 29 of the Children Act. 1948. There are 20 grant-aided
homes and the approximate total grant for the financial year was £12,405. The denominations
responsible for the management of the homes are Church of England 7,
Roman Catholic 4, Salvation Army 2, Church Army 2, Methodist 1, undenominational
4, but all the homes are undenominational where admissions are concerned. The
Council is represented by medical officers of the department on the governing bodies
of the homes which receive grants.
Social
work
Social work, both pre-natal and post-natal, is in the main done by moral welfare
associations, whose trained workers attach the greatest importance to it. Valuable
assistance is given by the voluntary committees of the mother and baby homes.
The primary object is to re-establish the mother in her own life, together with her
baby if possible. In London 35 moral welfare workers are employed by five associations
which received grants amounting to £9,110 during the financial year.
Participation
of
health
visitors
There is the closest co-operation between the health visitors and the moral
welfare workers. Unmarried mothers are put into touch with the moral welfare
workers, and the health visitors see that the maternity and child welfare services
are made available to them. Where necessary, financially necessitous cases are
referred to the Welfare Department. Women in need of residential accommodation
and considered unsuitable for admission to voluntary homes are cared for in the homes
maintained by that department.
Annual
Moral
Welfare
Conference
A conference is held once a year with representatives of the voluntary
moral welfare organisations at which outstanding problems are freely discussed and
personal contacts established between those organisations and the local supervisory
authority.
L.C.C.
Midwives

There was a slight fall in the birth-rate, but the attraction of hospital confinement
and the number of maternity beds available were the main factors in reducing the
number of home confinements.
Of the confinements during 1951, 753 were primi-gravidae and 6,287 multigravidae.
The figures do not include women booked by the Council's midwives
who were subsequently taken to hospital before confinement . The number of midwives
employed at the end of the year was 111 compared with 121 at the end of 1950
and 140 at the end of 1949. The average number of confinements attended by each
midwife, including sick and holiday reliefs, was approximately 62 as compared with
57 in 1950 and 58 in 1949.
Transport
Transport by ambulance cars continued to be available for the use of midwives
in emergency, particularly at night time and when undertaking additional relief
duties, and 3,133 miles were run on the service during the year.
Housing
of
midwives
Accommodation for domiciliary midwives continued to be provided by the
Council. On 31st December, 1951, 56 midwives were housed in 54 houses and flats,
of which 30 were provided by the Council and 24 taken on lease or on licence.