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54
Public Offices,
Enfield.
4th May, 1939.
To the Chairman and Members of the Urban District Council of
Enfield.
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen,
I beg to place before you my report on the Maternity and
Child Welfare services of Enfield for the year 1938.
During the course of the year it was found necessary to
increase both the amount and scope of work that was being
undertaken in order to maintain the health of the ante-natal and
nursing mothers, and the children under five years of age.
In the first place there were 200 more births recorded in
Enfield than in 1937. This alone gives some indication of the
need for increase in the amount of work that had to be done.
This increase, however, is only a continuation of that of the
last few years. In 1934 there were 1,126 births recorded; in
1938 the number had risen by no less than 661 to 1,787. It has
been somewhat difficult to keep the services maintained at such
strength as to meet the extra work that has resulted therefrom.
Apart from this there has been an increasing tendency for
ante-natal mothers to attend at our clinics, till to-day such attendance
is made by almost every mother in the district who is not going
to be attended at her confinement by a doctor, whilst the ante-natal
work for the 500 mothers who are entering each year the North
Middlesex County Hospital for their confinements is also carried
out at our Clinics, in order to save long journeys to the Hospital
during pregnancy. It has, therefore, been found essential to
increase the number of ante-natal clinics held during the month.
Nineteen hundred and thirty-eight was the first complete
year of Enfield's midwifery scheme, and I am pleased to record
that it operated simply and satisfactorily.
The number of mothers who are seeking the services of the
Council's midwives is increasing.
A petition was received from residents of Grange Park complaining
of the long distances which mothers, living in the area,
had to travel in order to attend at one of the Council's Child Welfare
Clinics, and requesting that a clinic more conveniently placed
be opened. This petition was given very careful consideration by
the Maternity and Child Welfare Committee, and as a result such a