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7
In practically all these cases the hospital provision was
arranged from the Child Welfare Centre, but in a futher 68 cases
the confinement took place in various hospitals under private
arrangements made by the mothers themselves, while 97 births
belonging to Wood Green took place in nursing homes outside the
district.
Of the 219 births registered as taking place within the
Borough, 185 were attended by the Council midwives.
From the figures given above, it will be seen that over 60 per
cent. of the Wood Green births in 1945 took place in hospitals or
nursing homes, all of them outside the district. There is now no
maternity hospital or nursing home in Wood Green and at the
end of the year I reported to the Maternity and Child Welfare
Committee on the position, and the possibility of doing anything
to improve it. There is a very great dearth in Wood Green of
large houses or other buildings which could be converted into a
maternity nursing home or hospital, and under present conditions
the likelihood of being able to provide a new building would seem
to be remote. The majority of mothers are anxious to have their
confinements in institutions rather than at home, and this preference
seems likely to continue or even increase. For the moment
it would seem that our only hope of increased maternity institutional
accommodation for Wood Green mothers rests with Middlesex
County Council.
CHILD WELFARE CENTRES.
The total attendances at the White Hart Lane Centre were
11,822, compared with 10,622 in the previous year. At Alexandra
Park Centre the attendances were 3,115 a small increase over 3,012,
the figure for the previous year.
The number of children brought to Centres was 2,244, of whom
1,240 were infants under one year and 1,004 children of from one
to five years.
The number of children seen at the Centres by Dr. Miller
during the year was 2,205 and of these 1,229 were infants and
976 children from one to five years.
Of the 19 infantile deaths which occurred during the year,
in ten cases the baby had been brought at least once to one
of the Centres.