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38
or her children. In many cases it was obvious that admission
would be a mistake, and frequently mothers who had stressed the
importance of having their children admitted, immediately left
them for the shortest possible time in the nursery.
It will be remembered that two children from one family in
Wanstead were admitted urgently last January on the direct
instruction of the Ministry of Health. They were in poor condition
on admission, and before admission it was obvious that the arrangement
would prove unsatisfactory. They were in the nursery less
than two weeks. By the end of that time the mother had changed
her job twice, and then decided she would give up work until the
next summer.
It is impossible to check how often the mothers change their
jobs. Sometimes it is only discovered by chance, when perhaps
the mother is wanted urgently and is not found at the address she
has given. One mother has changed her job five times. It cannot
be denied that the war-time nurseries, as at present arranged,
encourage the " careless " mother to evade her responsibilities to
her children. On examining the children during the winter months
I have been struck by the fact that children were attending the
nursery who ought to have been at home in bed—usually with
bronchial catarrh. The records show that these mothers have been
advised by the Matrons, often on more than one occasion, that the
children were not fit to be admitted. I have seen worse cases of
chronic malnutrition in the nurseries in twelve months than I have
seen at the Child Welfare Clinics in twelve years. The most
obvious case was a child of thirteen months, weighing 13 lbs. (the
average weight of a four months old baby) whose mother has moved
to and from the North of England. The children of women who
are continually moving from one part of the country to another are
always a problem to Maternity and Child Welfare Departments.
Pre-war they consisted mainly of families in which the father was
in irregular employment. Now, in an area like this, their number
is increased by families who have moved from poorer areas of the
East End of London. The table of those children who have left
the nurseries in the first year shows over 20 of these transfers in
and out of the district—children of whom the health visitors had
no record until their mothers applied for their admission to the
nursery—this does not represent the total of this "shifting population"
whose mothers have made use of the nurseries. Some who
removed their children after a very shdrt time and left no message,
and others whose children left after an illness, were subsequently