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7. CARE OF THE UNSUPPORTED MOTHER AND HER CHILD
Under Section 22 of the National Health Service Act, 1946, the Council is
responsible for the care of the unsupported mother and her child. The majority of these
mothers are unmarried but a few are separated or homeless. A medical social worker
is employed to advise such mothers and their families of the services available to
support them in planning the future for themselves and their children. The mother,
her parents and sometimes the putative father are offered a personal casework
service to enable them to understand something of the causes of the present situation
and to prevent further social breakdown in the future. The medical social worker has a
responsibility for the care of girls needing help who reside in the Borough and also,
by a special arrangement, for those living in the Boroughs of Hounslow and
Hillingdon. They are referred to the department's medical social worker by medical
social workers in hospitals, health visitors, general practitioners, and other social
workers, including the staff of the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her
Child, to whom many unmarried mothers write for help in the first instance. As the
service is becoming more widely known some girls contact the medical social worker
themselves or are referred by their employers or families.
During the ante-natal period the medical social worker advises on employment,
accommodation, finance and adoption procedure. If required she will arrange a
mother and baby home booking and will co-operate with the general practitioner and the
hospital where the confinement will take place. Following the delivery, while the
mother is resident in the mother and baby home the medical social worker will make
arrangements for adoption or alternatively help the girl to make constructive plans to
keep her baby. Preventive after-care following the girl's return home is carried on
wherever possible, but since a full-time social worker was not available for part of
the year, little in this direction could be undertaken. During the year, the department
helped 182 unsupported mothers from Ealing, 82 from Hounslow, and 80 from
Hillingdon.
The Council has its own mother and baby home to which the unsupported
mother can be admitted, usually six weeks before confinement and for six weeks after
delivery. It can accommodate 12 ante-natal patients and 14 post-natal patients and
babies. The home is staffed by a matron who is a state certified midwife, a deputy
matron, a part-time staff nurse, and four attendants. Ante-natal and post-natal
sessions are conducted in the home every week by the Principal Medical Officer
(Maternal and Child Health); all new babies are also examined regularly and a close
liaison is maintained with the maternity hospitals. Ante-natal and mothercraft classes
are given by the matron and, since many girls lack knowledge of the basic domestic
skills, instruction in these is given as part of the normal routine of the staff.
Occupational therapy classes are held weekly and the girls learn dressmaking,
knitting and other handicrafts. During the year, 123 mothers were accommodated in the
home and 58 of these were resident in the Borough.
To date, the Council's mother and baby home has been used for the more
difficult, emotionally disturbed or backward girl, and in return by arrangement with
the Boroughs of Haringey and Brent the medical social worker has been able to place
other girls in the homes in these Boroughs.
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