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110
VIII.—MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE.
Infant Welfare.
In view of the many developments of this work in the Borough in recent
years and of the number of important ancillary undertakings and arrangements
for which the Maternity and Child Welfare Committee are now responsible,
it may be well to remind ourselves that the essential foundation of our
scheme is the systematic home visiting of mothers, and expectant mothers, and
the subsequent attendance of those who have been visited at the appropriate
Centre.
The administrative arrangements designed to give effect to this scheme
are as follows:—
The Borough is divided into seven districts, six of which are allocated
to the six Municipal Health Visitors, whose office is at the Town
Hall, and one to the School for Mothers, a voluntary organization employing
two Health Visitors, that has worked in the Borough for many
years. This Association occupies a house at which Centres are held and
in which the Health Visitors have their office at 28, Herbert Street.
The names of the Health Visitors and the numbers of their districts
will be found in the section of this report dealing with staff.
Home Visiting.
Under the provisions of the Notification of Births Act, 1907, and
extending Act, 1915, all births must be notified to the Medical Officer of
Health within 36 hours. Acting upon the information thus received the
Health Visitors visit all babies born in their district as soon as the Midwife
in charge has left, which she ordinarily does when the baby is ten days old.
The number of live births notified during the year was 1,648, and the
number of still births 50. The number of registered births during the same
period were respectively 1,684 and 57. The number of births registered and
notified are not strictly comparable as the time allowed to elapse is different
under the two Acts, but the figures give an indication that notification has
been satisfactorily performed.
Particulars of the visits paid during the year will be found in the table on
page 140 at the end of this section. As was the case last year, the children
in the Borough under one year of age were visited on an average three times
each. The number of children in the Borough between one and five is probably
somewhere between 6,600 and 7,000 and the number of visits paid to
these was 8,569.
A considerable proportion of the time of the Health Visitors is necessarily
occupied in attendances at Centres, in making special visits in connection with
milk allowances and other matters, and in clerical work, so that the time available
for the systematic visiting of their districts is limited. While recognizing