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Distribution of vitamin preparations was also made as follows: cod liver oil, 4,697 13½-oz. bottles:
orange juice, 21,259 6-oz. bottles at 5d. per bottle; 1,008 bottles free: vitamin A and D tablets,
1,896 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. Forty-one applications were received by the Department and 121 dockets issued.
*Home Help and Domestic Help Services.—The demand for assistance from these services continued.
Difficulty was again experienced in finding and keeping the right type of women for the work, but
the scheme worked satisfactorily and it was found possible to help all genuine cases. 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—and this type of case accounted for over 90 per cent. of the work—the services of a
domestic help were frequently required for an indefinite period. Helpers were sent into an average
of 55 homes each week, and the number of women employed by the Council varied from five to ten.
*Child Life Protection.—The number of persons on the register who were undertaking for reward the
nursing and maintenance of foster children, was three, and the children in their care numbered three.
The Council's health visitors, acting as child protection visitors, made a total of 31 visits of inspection
to the homes.
*Illegitimate Children.—The Council participated in a scheme to provide increased financial assistance
to voluntary moral w elfa e organisations in London and contributed at the rate of £318 per annum.
Financial aid was given by the Council in three cases, the children being placed in children's homes.
*Premature Infants.—The care of premature infants continued to receive special attention. Fifty
premature births occurred in the Borough, of which 7 were to St. Marylebone mothers. Premature
births to St. Marylebone mothers occurring in other districts numbered 28.
*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 young
children. Statistics: sessions held, 78; new cases—mothers 85, children 24; attendances—mothers
465, children 99; X-ray examinations, 19; extractions—mothers 303, children 14; patients provided
with dentures at cost price, 29; fillings 201; other operations 267.
*Foot Clinic.—This clinic, conducted as part of the local maternity and child welfare scheme, held 22
sessions attended by 103 persons.
*Remedial Exercises.—Classes for remedial exercises were again well supported, and mothers and
young children made a total of 847 attendances at the 63 sessions held at Welfare Centres Nos. 1
and 2.
*Child Guidance.—Thirteen clinic sessions were held, and 18 cases made a total of 68 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 to any doctor in the area needing assistance in difficult or complicatsd cases
arising during pregnancy or at or after confinement.
*Domiciliary Midwifery.—As from the 15th February, 1948, the authorities of St. Mary's Hospital,
Paddington, in conjunction with the Paddington and St. Marylebone District Nursing Association,
arranged for a staff midwife to attend maternity patients in their own homes, the object being to
encourage mothers to have their babies at home wherever practicable, and thus to reheve the pressure
on the hospital wards. At the time of confinement the hospital obstetric officer is available and, if
necessary, admission to hospital is arranged. The midwife continues to visit for the 10 days following
the confinement, during which time the patient is seen by one of the hospital's consulting obstetricians.
Ante-natal and post-natal care are also undertaken by the hospital.
*Maternity Survey.—In 1946 the Council co-operated with the Royal College of Obstetricians and
Gynaecologists in an investigation into certain aspects of childbearing in Britain. In view of the great
value to social medicine of the data obtained from the survey, the Council afforded further asssistance
during the year by carrying out a follow-up enquiry on the health and development of full-term and
premature babies and the relation between childbearing and maternal ill-health in respect of a
proportion of the original mothers who responded to the appeal for information.
* The information contained in these paragraphs relates to the period 1st January, 1948, to 4th July, 1948.