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16
Seven hundred and thirty-eight houses where a birth had
occurred were visited, and 4,493 visits were paid to the houses of
infants.
Formerly home-visiting was the sole work done in connection
with infant welfare, and it still must remain one of the most important
phases of the work, but in 1912, an infant consultation
centre was opened in the Priory School. In 1916 a second centre
was opened in South Acton ; this second centre is now held in rooms
hired from the Palmerston Road Mission.
On Table 13 will be found statistics of the children who
attended at these centres.
From Table 13 it will be seen that a large percentage of the
babies do not attend the centres under the age of three months.
Most of the homes have been visited, of course, within a few weeks
of the birth. But the health visitors do not have the same opportunities
of frequently impressing upon the mothers the importance
of breast feeding unless attendance is made early and regularly at
the centres.
The investigations which have been made in many countries
into the. causes of the infantile death-rate have revealed a closs
connection between the number of infants who are breast-fed and
the number who survive the first year of life. The advantages of
breast-feeding are now universally admitted, but unfortunately,
the admission is hedged in by so many conditions that a large number
of babies are brought up on a bottle.
These two primary facts should be stamped upon the mind of
every expectant mother; viz.:—that the benefits of breast-feeding
are incalculable and that with rare exceptions, every mother is able
to rear ifc own infant.
During the latter part of the nineteenth century, a decrease
appears to have occurred in the amount of breast -feeding, and this
was attributed by some to a decrease in the capacity of the mother
for the fulfilment of the function of lactation. Increased experience
has shown that the difficulties of breast-feeding which exist in a
certain proportion of cases can be satisfactorily surmounted in
nearly every instance.
A record has been kept of the number of babies who are
breast fed when they make their first attendance at the centre, and