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THE HEALTH OF BARKING
INFANT WELFARE CLINIC.—Waiting made easy.
By 1919 the Health Visitors were making hundreds of visits to homes each year
and the 'Babies Welcome' as the clinics came to be called was a very popular
institution. "A cup of tea is provided for each mother" and, although the report
does not mention it, the meeting clearly became an excuse, inter alia, for a good
old 'chin wag.' By 1923, there were three flourishing Infant Welfare CentresEast
Street, Kennedy Hall and Abbey Road.
Today, there are 5 centres for Infant Welfare Clinics in Barking. Three
sessions weekly are held in each of them and the number of attendances was 37, 132
for the year.
If the greatest possible number of infant lives are to be saved then there must
be continuity and integration between the ante-natal care, the post-natal and infant
welfare services. Today, this is a feature of your service to which particular attention
is paid. Under the National Health Service Act, 1946, two authorities will be concerned
with the administration of these services and it is greatly to be hoped that this
will not interfere with the smooth dovetailing of these interrelated services.
One of the great difficulties is that those mothers who need the advice most do
not attend the clinic regularly. Others may come because they "see a doctor for
nothing," disclosing by their attitude that they only bring the child to the clinic
when it is ill. These mothers do not understand the purpose of the service. The
centres are run so that all mothers may be helped to bring up their children in the
healthiest way possible.
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