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Student Health Visitors.—Student health visitors from King's College of Household and Social Science (University
of London) and the National Health Society were accepted every three months to gain practical experience of a health
visitor's duties in the Council's welfare centres, etc.
Visitors to Centres and Nurseries.—Medical students from St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington, student health visitors
from the Royal College of Nursing, and parties of A.T.S. members from the London District Transit Camp were afforded
facilities for seeing the Council's maternity and child welfare scheme at work and for visiting the welfare centres and
day nurseries. Throughout the year lectures on maternity and child welfare were given by two of the health visitors
at the A.T.S. Education Centre in the Borough to groups of girls due for demobilisation. On the 6th November, 1946,
a recording of an infant welfare clinic in session at the Lisson Grove Centre was made by the B.B.C. for subsequent
use in tae " Woman's Hou
Home Visits.—The five whole-time health visitors and one part-time health visitor paid domiciliary visits as follow :
(a) to expectant mothers, first visits, 529, total visits, 906 ; (b) to children under 1 year of age, first visits, 854, total
visits, 3,018 ; (c) to children between the ages of 1 and 5 years, total visits, 3,113.
Milk and Vitamin Products.—The Food Executive Officer has kindly provided the following information as to dried
milk supplied under the National Scheme during the period 30th December, 1945, to 28th December, 1946 ; full cream,
3,176 20-oz. cartons at l/2d. per carton ; 127 cartons free : half cream, 256 cartons at l/2d. per carton ; 15 cartons
free. Distribution of vitamin preparations was also made as follow : cod liver oil, 6,892 13|-oz. bottles ; orange juice,
45,305 6-oz. bottles ; vitamin A and D tablets, 2,011 packets, each packet containing 45 tablets.
Sheets for Expectant Mothers.—On production of a midwife's certificate that sheets are needed for home confinement,
expectant mothers are entitled to a maximum of three Board of Trade priority utility sheet dockets. During 1946,
45 applications were received by the Department and 131 dockets issued, as compared with 65 dockets supplied to 23
applicants in 1945.
Home Help and Domestic Help Services.—The demand for assistance from these services increased considerably
throughout 1946. Some difficulty was experienced in finding and keeping the right type of women for the work, but
the scheme worked satisfactorily on the whole. Help was given to all genuine cases, though it was necessary to point
out to certain applicants the limitations and intentions of the scheme, as it was found that the Town Hall was treated
by some enquirers as a domestic agency to which all in need of domestic help, irrespective of their circumstances, could
apply. In normal home help cases (confinements at home and after discharge from hospital or nursing home) the helper
was generally sent into the home for two or three weeks, but where aged or infirm people were concerned, help was
frequently continued for an indefinite period. Helpers were sent into 79 households—54 home help and 25 domestic
help—and by the end of the year four full-time helpers were employed by the Council.
Child Life Protection.—The number of persons on the register who, at the end of the year, were undertaking for
reward the nursing and maintenance of foster children, was six, and the children in their care numbered eight. The
Council's health visitors, acting as child protection visitors, made a fotal of 77 visits of inspection to the homes.
Illegitimate Children.—The Council participated in a scheme to provide increased financial assistance to voluntary
moral welfare'organisations in London and contributed at the rate of £318 per annum. Financial aid was given by the
Council in one case, the child being placed in a children's home.
Premature Infants.—-The care of premature infants continued to receive special attention. Fifty-one premature
births occurred in the Borough, of which 15 were to St. Marylebone mothers. Premature births to St. Marylebone
mothers occurring in other districts numbered 33.
Dental Treatment.—By arrangement, certain sessions at the Dental Clinic of the London County Council at No. 217,
Lisson Grove, are set aside for the inspection and treatment of mothers and children under the local maternity and
child welfare scheme. After acting as the Council's Dental Surgeon for 5|- years, Mr. L. J. Godden, L.D.S., R.C.S.,
resigned on the 31st December, 1945, and was succeeded on the 1st January, 1946, by Mr. E. H. Carroll-Clark, L.D.S.,
R.C.S. Statistics for 1946 : sessions held, 150 ; new cases—mothers 260, children 75 ; attendances—mothers 921,
children 188 ; X-ray examinations, 13 ; extractions—mothers 411, children 25 ; patients provided with dentures at
cost price, 33 ; fillings, 521 ; other operations, 593.
Foot Clinic.—This clinic, conducted as part of the Council's Maternity, and Child Welfare Scheme from April, 1938,
to July, 1939, was re-established at the end of November, 1946, and 15 persons attended the four sessions held during
the remainder of the year.
Remedial Exercises.—Classes for remedial exercises, held at Welfare Centres Nos. 1 and 2, were supported by 38
mothers who made a total of 117 attendances.
Child Guidance.—Twenty-four clinic sessions were held during the year, and 41 cases made a total of 110 attendances.
Maternity Cases.—Accommodation for maternity cases was available within the Borough at the Middlesex Hospital,
and also at the Paddington Hospital of the London County Council. The emergency obstetric service of the London
County Council and a panel of local obstetric consultants continued to be available for any doctor in the area needing
assistance in difficulties or complications arising during pregnancy or at or after confinement.