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38
In the portion of the Borough where the Health Visitor is devoting her time,
the infantile mortality was 198 per 1,000 births in 1910. Excluding the deaths of
infants who died immediately after birth and before the Health Visitor made her first
visit, the infantile mortality was 170 per 1,000 births.

* Miss Forrester was employed by a private individual to act as Health
Visitor in the same area during the years 1904-1907 inclusive.
The principal functions which the Health Visitor is called upon to perform are
as follows:—
(1) To advise expectant mothers on the management of their health, and as
to the influence of ante-natal conditions on their infants.
(2) To follow up the notification of births, and to visit the homes when the
Doctor and Midwife have ceased to attend.
(3) To note conditions of ignorant feeding or of non-supply of sufficient and
nourishing food, and to take judicious steps to correct these evils.
(4) To give advice on the proper feeding of infants; to warn mothers against
premature weaning; to inculcate in particular the importance of breast
feeding until the teeth appear; to see that foul or long-tubed feeding
bottles, and "comforters" or dummy teats, are not used.
When Miss Forrester was engaged in this area, she had great difficulty in preventing
premature weaning. It is now quite the reverse. It is often found to be
necessary to caution the mothers against prolonged suckling. In some instances
it was found to be extended to two years, and 14 infants had not been weaned at the
end of one year.