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48
BACTERIOLOGICAL EXAMINATIONS.

MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE.
The Maternity and Child Welfare Scheme in St. Marylebone is made up of
voluntary and official elements. Of the voluntary elements, to the nature of which
reference is made later, those for which the St. Marylebone Health Soceity is
responsible bulk largest. The Council, who made a grant of £1,000 in 1933 to
the Society, and the inhabitants of the Borough are greatly indebted to this body
and those who work for it for what they have done and what they are doing in
relation to maternity and child welfare.
Apart from the Health Society, however, there are other bodies that assist
and that are more or less definitely linked up to the main scheme, the connecting
link being the Public Health Department of the Council. Amongst these bodies
may be mentioned Queen Charlotte's Hospital and Middlesex Hospital, which in
addition to providing lying-in accommodation, arrange for attention to be given
to out-door patients as well, and conduct ante-natal clinics and infant consultations.
At the Western General Dispensary the special clinic for children under
Dr. Bernard Myers does most useful work. Less definitely part of the scheme,
but 'still doing very valuable work and helping whenever possible, are St. Agatha's
Home, and the Home of the Little Company of Mary, where unmarried mothers
particularly are provided for, both before and after the birth of their child.
The following summaries, the second of which (Form M.C.W. 96 revised) is
prepared at the request of the Ministry, give a number of details with regard to
the arrangements under the scheme and afford some indication of the work done
during 1933. It will be noted that at the end of the year there were available eight
centres where attention was given to infant and child welfare, and if those at the
hospitals are included four ante-natal clinics. At some of the centres, as is shown
in the accompanying time-table, consultations are held every day, sometimes twice
a day. In addition to the ordinary infant and young child ("toddlers") consultations,
there is a dental clinic for mothers and young children, open on four days,
for two of which the Health Society is responsible. By arrangement with the
London County Council the dental clinic is used also by school children, and in
conjunction with this there is also a minor ailment treatment centre for school
children. Here in addition there is a light clinic and a massage clinic which were
established in 1927, and are open on two days per week.
The following statements contain so much information with regard to the
scheme and the work done that they will probably be found useful. Both are
required to be made by the Ministry of Health, the first to show the arrangements
made for maternity and child welfare by the Council and by Voluntary Associations
providing maternity and child welfare services in respect of which the Council pay
contributions under Section 101 of the Local Government Act, 1929, or otherwise;
and the second to give particulars of the work done during the year 1983.