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5. CARE OF THE UNSUPPORTED MOTHER
AND HER CHILD
Under Section 22 of the National Health Service Act, 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. Two medical social workers are 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 workers have 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 until 1 April 1970 Hillingdon. They are
referred to the department's medical social workers 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 workers 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 put her in touch
with an Adoption Agency or alternatively help the girl to make constructive plans to keep
her baby. Preventive after-care following the girl's return home is also given. During
the year, the department helped 129 unsupported mothers from Ealing and 30 from Hounslow
and 13 from Hillingdon. The London Borough of Hillingdon withdrew from arrangements on
1 April 1970.
The Council has its own Mother and Baby Home to which an unsupported mother may be
admitted for a period, usually six weeks before confinement and until six weeks after
delivery. The demand for places in the Home has declined in recent years. This has
enabled us to provide a less institutional type of care. To this end the available
accommodation has been converted into bed-sitting rooms in which the mothers are able to
look after their babies in their own room rather than having to leave them in a communal
nursery in the Home. I have no doubt that this "rooming-in" enables much more personal
care to be provided which must be in the interests of both the mother and her baby.
Ante-natal and mothercraft classes are given by the Matron since many girls lack the
knowledge of the basic domestic skills. Occupational therapy classes are held weekly,
where the girls learn dressmaking, knitting and other accomplishments. The Council's
medical social workers give support in what is a very difficult time for these mothers.
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