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115
Health of the Foster Children.
1 lie solving of the difficulties indicated requires careful consideration not only for the reasons
above-mentioned, but also because—
(a) the children are suffering on account of their hazardous lives from the time they leave
hospital until their mothers get work ;
(b) the children are suffering too on account of the frequent changes of home and the different
mothers under whose care they come ;
(c) illegitimacy is not decreasing. Year in and year out there are round about 100 Willesden
illegitimate births. Altogether, there are 200 foster children in Willesden.
(d) the number of illegitimate children dying between the ages of 4 weeks and 1 year is 3 times
as great as the number dying under 4 weeks of age whereas in the case of legitimate children,
the figures are equal.
During the 5-year period 1931-35, the death rate for legitimate children under 4 weeks of age
was 25 per 1,000 legitimate births and for legitimate children between 4 weeks and 1 year of age, it
was the same. But the death rate for illegitimate children under 4 weeks of age was 50 per 1,000
illegitimate births and for illegitimate children between 4 weeks and 1 year of age it was 151 per 1,000
illegitimate births.
Are any Remedies reasonably possible ?
Suggestions.
1. The establishment by the Local Authority of a Home or Clearing House to which these girls
could come with their babies straight from hospital until they find work and are able to find and pay
suitable foster mothers. (Maternity and Child Welfare Act, 1918, Section 1.)
(Note.-—Such a home might also be used as a home for the pregnant mother during the last
weeks of pregnancy. It might also be used for such mothers as might desire or be induced to continue
to breast feed their babies.)
2. Payment of foster mothers by Local Authority.
Actually, in practice, homes for babies have not been found very satisfactory and it maybe that
a better arrangement would be for the babies to be taken straight to the foster mothers with whom
they are to remain.
This could only be done if foster mothers' payments were secure and sufficient, which is unlikely
to be the case if they are dependent on the type of parent now under consideration.
They would be made secure and sufficient if the Council paid the foster mothers and recovered
all or part from the parents. (Maternity and Child Welfare Act, 1918, Section 1.)
3. Mothers' pensions.
It hardly seems that these would solve this particular problem although they might be given
in some cases. Although illegitimacy is not the severe social handicap it was years ago, the majority
of these girls still desire to keep the knowledge from their friends and usually do not want to be hampered
with a baby. They prefer to work and be free.
Any scheme which the Committee may devise as a result of the consideration of this question
would require the sanction of the Minister of Health under Section 1 of the Maternity and Child Welfare
Act, which is as follows :—
"Any local authority within the meaning of the Notification of Births Act, 1907, may
make such arrangements as may be sanctioned by the Local Government Board, for attending
to the health of expectant mothers and nursing mothers, and of children who have not attained
the age of five years and are not being educated in schools recognised by the Board of
Education :
Provided that nothing in this Act shall authorise the establishment by any local
authority of a general domiciliary service by medical practitioners."
The Circular of the Ministry of Health, M. & C.W. 4, dated 9th August, 1918, deals with Homes
for Children in paragraph 33, which is as follows
"The health of infants and young children who lack the support of a father often needs
special attention, and it is on all grounds desirable that the mother and child should be kept
together in such cases, especially during the first year. It is notorious that the death rate of
illegitimate infants, the only infants in this category for whom separate statistics are published,
is about twice the death rate of legitimate infants. To some extent this is due to the difficulty
experienced by their mothers in making a home for them. The mothers generally go out to
work and leave their infants with foster-mothers. As a result of the war fewer suitable fostermothers
are prepared to take the children at a charge which their mothers can afford to pay.
The Board have, therefore, obtained the Treasury assent to the extension of the grant to homes
at which mothers and children can be kept together in certain cases, and to such other arrangements
as the Board may approve for attending to the health of the children under consideration.
In some cases it may be desirable to pay a good foster-mother to look after a child whose mother
cannot afford the whole of its keep, or to assist the mother to stay at home to attend to the child.
Any scheme for this purpose should be submitted for the Board's approval before expenditure
is incurred on it if a grant is desired."