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36
The preventive measures that are more concerned with personal
hygiene than the hygiene of environment have been continued during
the past year. The most important work of this kind is a comprehensive
system of health visiting, working on the information furnished by the
Notification of Births Act, 1907, by which Act all births are required
to be notified to the Medical Officer of Health within 36 hours of their
occurrence. The obligation to notify imposed by the Act is in addition
to, and not in substitution for, the obligation to register a birth which
is imposed by the Registration Act.
The Notification of Births Act came into operation in Hampstead
in March, 1908, and the year 1913 is the fifth for which we possess a
complete annual record of the working of the Act . The number of births
notified in 1913 was 1210, including 23 still-births, the number of
live-births notified being 1187. The total number of live-births occurring
in Hampstead in 1913 was 1245, so that the number of live-births
notified formed 95.3 per cent. of the number that actually occurred, this
being a very satisfactory percentage. 316 births were notified by
medical practitioners, 171 by midwives, 672 by parents and 51 from
other sources.
Of the births notified to the Medical Officer of Health upwards of
800 (about 68 per cent.) were selected for visitation, and 1,116 visits and
re-visits were paid.
During the past year the widespread efforts to teach personal hygiene
have been continued. The visit of the lady inspector, which is made
soon after the birth of an infant, enables her to observe obvious sanitary
defects in the home or its arrangements, to advise in matters of health,
and often to advocate the seeking of medical advice when such is
necessary.
Chief among our efforts to check wastage of infant life should be
placed the co-called Mothers' Welcome at the Health Institute. To
this, as soon as the mother is able to get about, she is invited to bring
her baby for the purpose of obtaining advice as regards the rearing of
children, and to have her child weighed so that its general condition
may be watched. Mrs. Roche, one of the Council's Health Visitors,
attends the meetings of the Infants' Committees (East and West) of the
Hampstead Health Society, and there informs the Committees of those
mothers who, in her opinion, need befriending and helping. A visit to