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this last eighteen months, we have acquired a much needed facility,
namely, the power to obtain help from the Borough towards the
payments for little children who are sent into the Beauchamp Lodge
Hostel in Maida vale, whilst their mother is in a Maternity Hospital.
It has been a great hindrance to our work in the past, to be unable to
make any arrangement for a child to be cared for, when, for any special
reason, its mother has had to go into a Maternity Hospital, and no
relation or friend is available to look after it. Five of such children
have been sent to Beauchamp Lodge Hostel during the last year, the
Borough assisting in most cases with the weekly payments. I do not
think it is too much to say that, in providing all these facilities for
mothers and babies, the Hampstead Borough Council has been a pioneer
amongst the Local Authorities in Great Britain.
The Infantile mortality rate in the Borough for 1927, was 51 per
1,000 births. The number of infant deaths occurring in the first month
of life was 30. These deaths are more or less attributable to ante-natal
causes, and our work is concerned with endeavouring to prevent them.
It is pleasing to be able to note that of the 305 expectant mothers
attending our Clinics last year, only 5 lost their babies in the first
month of life. Of these, one mother had twins prematurely and both
died. Another had a baby born with hydrocephalus (or " water on the
brain "), and it died in the second week of life. A third, who had
twins, lost one of them at three weeks of age, owing to convulsions and
congestion of the lungs. In a fourth case, the baby died of pemphigus
at the age of one week. The fifth case lost her baby two days after its
birth owing to prematurity and cardiac failure.
Abnormal cases.
There were four cases in whom valvular disease of the heart was
present, and they were seen as often as possible during pregnancy.
One is still under observation, and another has passed on to the AnteNatal
Clinic of a Maternity Hospital, after having a short period of rest
at the Hampstead General Hospital in one of our Borough beds.
Each of the remaining two patients has done well, and has had a
healthy baby, both having had short periods of rest in a Maternity
Hospital before their confinements.
Eight of the nine cases of albuminuria all did well on a non-flesh
diet, rest being enjoined as much as is possible for a working-class
mother. Three of these mothers were sent in to New End Hospital
before their confinements were due, for rest and treatment. A fourth