View report page

14
Public Offices,
Enfield.
To the Chairman and Members of the Urban District Council of
Enfield.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I beg to place before you my Annual Report on the Maternity
and Child Welfare and Midwifery work carried out in Enfield during
1940.
This was the first complete year of war, and subject to all the
interruptions occasioned by the Civil Defence organisation and
later by air raids. It was a year when every effort had to be made
to maintain the services intact and to secure their continuation.
Perusal of the following pages will show the extent to which success
was obtained.
The total number of individual children who attended at our
Clinics was in excess of that for 1939, the Health Visitors paid
almost the same number of visits, the clinics for mothers and children
were held as usual, and aural, ophthalmic and dental treatment
continued on the same scale as in the previous year. The number
of cases attended by our Midwives exceeded that for 1939, whilst
the attendances at the Ante-Natal Clinics was the highest ever
recorded.
It is essential that every expectant mother should have medical
care and attention during the months before her baby is born. Of
the 1,607 Enfield mothers who were confined during the year no less
than 1,278 obtained such care at our Clinics, and it may be fairly
assumed that the remainder were in the capable hands of their own
private doctors.
I consider this to be a very satisfactory state of affairs.
The majority of our expectant mothers remained in Enfield for
their confinement, only a few choosing to accept the Government's
evacuation scheme whereby arrangements are made for them to be
evacuated to reception areas during the last month of pregnancy.
Although I have been amazed at the courage with which our
mothers have undergone the stress and strain of pregnancy and
child-birth under air raid conditions, I must, nevertheless, strongly
advise them to avail themselves of the facilities ol evacuation
offered to them by the Government, and to leave the evacuable
portion of Enfield for their confinement.