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18
This is the minimum amount of help required at each Centre
when at work, but from the experience of places where such Centres
are working, there appears to be no difficulty in obtaining as much
voluntary help as is required by the Superintendent.
When a Centre is opened babies are brought by their mothers
for inspection and advice. It does not necessarily follow that the
mother is under the impression that anything ails her baby. The
baby is stripped and weighed, advice given to mothers on the clothing
and general hygiene of the infant by the Superintendent, and if
necessary the baby is taken in to see the doctor, who, in case of
treatment being necessary, either in mother or child, would refer
them to the family doctor, or special hospital, as the case may
require.
A special feature of the meetings is an address by the Superintendent,
or some other specially qualified person, to both the
expectants and mothers, on the care of their own health and that
of their offspring, and on the general hygiene of the home and
surroundings.
I am given to understand that a certain amount of difficulty is
experienced in finding out expectant mothers and inducing them toattend.
To this we must trust to our Health Visitor, who, in the
course of her visits, would doubtless come in touch with many.
At the present moment we have no machinery for starting
even one centre, and I venture to suggest as a preliminary that a
Health Visitor should be appointed and the opening of the Centres
deferred until such time as our Health Visitor shall have made
herself acquainted with the district, and by the routine visiting
entailed by the Notification of Births Acts shall have become
acquainted with many mothers and infants.
From all that has been said it will be evident that the appointment
of a Lady Health Visitor is a matter of the utmost importanceShe
should be qualified as a Health Visitor and Sanitary Inspector.
Her duties, shortly, would be to visit houses where births had been
notified, keep records, and generally to act as advised by the
M.O.H.; also in case of necessity and in the ordinary course of her
visiting to act as an Assistant Sanitary Inspector.
I offer the suggestion that arrangements might be made with
the Education Committee to allow the School Nurses to devote
part of their time to assist the Health Visitor. This arrangement
works very well in many parts of the country where it has been
tried.
The following estimate allows for the working of two of the
proposed Centres per week, as I think that for a beginning fortnightly
meetings would suffice.