View report page

19
Public Offices,
Enfield, Middx.
June, 1943.
To the Chairman and Members of the Urban District Council
of Enfield.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have much pleasure in placing before you my Annual Report
on the maternity and child welfare work carried out in Enfield
during the year 1942.
Perhaps the most interesting point is that during the year
more babies were born to the mothers of Enfield than in any previous
year, the total number being 1824. This figure compares
with 1507 for 1941. It is a most striking proof of the confidence
of the mothers of Enfield in Victory, that, undaunted and unafraid
of the present or the future, they are having babies in greater numbers
than in peace time. It is a tribute also to the Council's midwifery
service, for I believe it fair to say that the mothers know that
they will be well looked after.
There is one aspect, however, which has given cause for great
concern, namely, the question of housing accommodation. Throughout
the year 1942 I received repeated calls and many letters from
expectant mothers complaining of their living conditions and their
inability to secure anything better. In most cases they had approached
every person, every officer that they might have expected
would give them help. Mothers consider pregnancy to be a perfectly
adequate reason for a successful application for satisfactory housing
accommodation, and I cannot but agree with this point of view.
There was very little I could answer the mothers who complained to
me that although the Government desired an increased birth rate
in order to secure the preservation of Britain it offered little encouragement
to women to have children if it did not provide them
with suitable accommodation in which to rear their children. It
has been very difficult for me to explain to them that there was
nothing I could do to help them for they look to me as their Medical
Officer of Health to ameliorate their unhappy and unhygienic
housing conditions.
Most difficult of all have been the interviews I have had with
service men home on leave who have appealed to me to do something
for their wives. I am of the opinion that much discontent is being
caused by the inability of Health Authorities to deal with the
position of bad housing.