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attendance at these consultations, each mother has a personal interview with the
doctor, and each infant is weighed. In special cases, when ordered by the Medical
Officer, dinners are given to expectant and nursing mothers. During the summer
months special instruction is given, both orally and by leaflets, on Summer Diarrhoea
and how to prevent it. Dinners are also provided by the Stepney Invalid Kitchen,
on the recommendation of the Health Visitor.
The area comprised in the Limehouse district, viz., the Parishes of Limehouse
and Shadwell and the Hamlet of Ratcliffe is thus served by two Health Visitors (one
being voluntary), the Mother's Welcome and the Stepney Invalid Kitchen.
The duties of the Health Visitor may be classified 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 doctor
and midwife have ceased to attend.
(3) To note the conditions of ignorant and improper feeding and to take 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, and, above all, of the avoidance
of the use of foul feeding bottles.
(5) To promote and encourage the practice of weighing infants regularly and
to instruct in, or remind mothers of the simple rules of hygiene in
relation to the home and its inmates, and otherwise to assist in preventing
the spread of such diseases as Measles, Whooping Cough, &c.
(6) To promote a knowledge of the value of fresh air and of keeping windows
open day and night.
(7) To note any sanitary or foul conditions in any of the homes visited where
infants have recently been born, and to report such matters to the
Medical Officer of Health.
(8) To visit and report on all cases in the Borough communicated by the
Almoners of the London Hospital.
(9) To keep a systematic record of cases.
A little over one-third of the total deaths occur in the first month of life. It is
generally acknowledged that three-fourths of the infants bom throughout the
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