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Maternity and Child Welfare
It will be noted that attendances at our various Clinics and
Centres continued at a satisfactory level during 1946. Indeed, the
numbers became so great at certain Centres, that consideration had
to be given to the establishment of new clinics.
Attendances amounting to 100 mothers and children at Infant
Welfare Centres and 30 to 40 expectant mothers at Ante-Natal
Centres are much too high. Individual attention cannot possibly
be adequate in such circumstances, no matter how hard or conscientiously
the staff may work. Because of this, the whole question
of our clinic provision was reviewed towards the end of 1946, with a
view to increasing the scope of the services provided. The fact that
Southgate will assume responsibility for the day-to-day administration
of the School Health Service during 1947 tended to
complicate the issue, but the situation was considered sufficiently
serious to warrant immediate action.
Quite apart from the excessive attendances at our Centres, it
is now obvious that insufficient time is being devoted to visiting in
the home. With the early discharge of maternity cases from
hospital, post-natal supervision in the home is more than ever
important. The housing situation and the many difficulties with
which young mothers are now faced, adds urgency to the problem,
which has never been so great as it is to-day. It is hoped that the
new arrangements under which we will operate the School Health
Service and Maternity and Child Welfare Services combined, will
ease the situation, but it may well be that additional help in the
way of Health Visitors will still be required. We cannot possibly
afford to exclude any precautions which safeguard the health and
future of mothers and young infants. To do so would be nothing
less than criminal folly, viewed either from the humanitarian angle,
or from the welfare of the nation as a whole. Southgate has good
reason to be proud of the foundations on which its Maternity and
Child Welfare work has been laid; there is even more reason for the
acceptance of extended responsibilities in the immediate future.
The part played by the Southgate Voluntary Helpers deserves
S'pecial mention. These ladies, actuated by a selfless desire to be of
service, help out at all our Clinics and Centres, according to an
established rota. The assistance which they render cannot be too
highly praised, and is appreciated most by those who really understand
its worth. If loyalty and devotion to duty can help us towards
our ideal, we know that this will always be available.
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