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33
Home helps must, of course, be persons of suitable character.
Where the confinement takes place at home they should undertake
the necessary duties under the direction of the nurse or midwife
in attendance.
The duties of a Home help would be the ordinary domestic
duties usually undertaken by the mother, including cleaning,
cooking, washing, care of children, mending and marketing. She
should not undertake any work which properly belongs to the
sphere of the trained nurse or midwife, nor assist at a confinement
unless a doctor or midwife is in attendance.
If the Board's suggestion of Home helps were adopted a great
need would be met. Recently I have come across several cases
where the home has been managed with great difficulty during
the confinement of the mother who has been exposed to great
mental anxiety on account of her household affairs. In on case
the results were serious for the mother and the child. These
home helps, if properly chosen and trained at the Maternity and
Child Welfare Centre, would not only be of assistance to the mother,
but would be a means of educating the mothers under their care
in the general principles of hygiene and child welfare.
Usually the scale of fees paid home helps is 12s. 6d. to 15s.
per week. For people in necessitous circumstances the charge
would be remitted by the Council, but when there is ability to pay
a charge in accordance with their circumstances would be made.
Hospitals for Infants.
Now that hostilities have ceased there is a reasonable prospect
that in the near future the children's ward at the King Edward
Memorial Hospital will revert to its original use. The time, therefore,
seems opportune for the adoption of the suggestion put forward
in my report of the 2nd April last, that negotiations be opened
with the Hospital Committee for securing a certain number of
beds for children under 5 years of age.
It appears desirable that six beds should be allotted for this
purpose, three beds for purely medical cases, which would be under
the care of the Hospital staff, and three beds for cases which are
not thriving in the normal way and which should be kept under