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19
PREVENTION OF INFANTILE MORTALITY.
If reference be made to reports tor past years it will be found that with regard
to infantile mortality the same remarks are regularly made, viz., that the outstanding
causes of death are prematurity, diarrhoea, enteritis and respiratory diseases ; that
these are largely preventable causes and that the bulk of the babies need not have
died.
It is pointed out also that the Council and the St. Marylebone Health Society
and their workers are all convinced of the preventability of infantile mortality, and
have put into operation such methods as are regarded as capable of assisting in
prevention.
The absolute necessity of impressing upon mothers the importance of their
part in prevention is recognised, and in every way possible it is sought to get into
touch with them, and to give them such instruction in hygiene and guidance in infant
management as they seem to require.
The Women Inspectors of the Council give a great part of their time to work of
this kind, visiting homes after receipt of notifications of births, advising mothers as
to the feeding and care of infants and on hygiene generally.
These are the lines upon which the St. Marylebone Health Society operates also.
In the infant consultations and the schools for mothers they have established, a
great amount of educational work has been done. In them they have placed at the
disposal of the mothers medical practitioners who have made a speciality of this
branch of medicine. Associated with them there are numbers of workers who are
always ready and willing to help and teach the mothers.
Year by year the work of the institutions has extended, and in 1914 there was
again an increase in the amount done.
In North Marylebone the number of attendances at the consultations held at the
Portman Club, Church Street, under Drs. Christine Murrell and Emily Mecredy,
was 2,098, as against 1,932 in 1913. The total number of babies seen was 240.
The Mothers' Club, at which lectures and demonstrations are given, was
attended by 94 women.
In South Marylebone 275 babies were seen at the consultations conducted by
Dr. Eric Pritchard at the Marylebone General Dispensary, Welbeck Street. In all
there were 1,880 attendances.
The Mothers' Club was attended by 24 mothers.
The total number of visits to homes by the voluntary workers was 2,190—
1,400 in the North District, and 790 in the South District. These were
supplementary to the visits paid by the Women Inspectors, which numbered 3,889.