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Square in 1769 these were the first Infant Welfare institutions in
England. Dr.Brunnell of the new Dispensary in 1816 was already
advocating the "home visiting of infants," In 1852 the Hospital
for Sick Children.- Great Ormond Street, was founded.
The first milk centres in England were opened in St..Helens,
Lancashire, in 1899. Sterilised and suitably modified milk was
Supplied.
In 1901 Infant Welfare Centres were opened in. Liverpool by Dr.
E. W. Hope, the Medical Officer of Health, to which Health Visitors
were attached.
In 1905, home visiting of infants by Corporation Visitors in
Glasgow was commenced. In 1906, Huddersfield Corporation obtained
parliamentary powers for the compulsory notification of births in the
Borough, and this let to the Notification of Births Act, 1907, an
adoptive act, made compulsory in 1915.
In 1902 the Midwives Act was passed, leading to other acts, until
the 1936 Midwives Act established a full-time domiciliary midwifery
service.
The Education Act of 1907 established the systematic medical
inspection of school-children, and experience in working this Act
soon showed that regular medical inspection of children prior to
school age was necessary.
Dr. D.L. Thomas, the Medical Officer of Health to the Limehouse
District Board, and afterwards in 1901 to the Stepney Borough Council,
was not behind in realising the necessity for infant care in Stepney.
The infant mortality of Limehouse (though not of Stepney as a
whole) was then the highest in London. In 1900 he urged the District
Board to appoint 2 Health Visitors to visit and instruct mothers in
the care and feeding of their infants. It was intended that these
women would have the status of sanitary inspectors, so as to secure a
grant from the Local Government Board towards the payment of their
salaries. The Local Government Board refused to give a grant and
the scheme fell through. Arrangements were then made to distribute
leaflets of advice on infant care to the mothers in the Limehouse area.
Had the Board appointed Health Visitors they would have been the first
municipal health visitors in London.
However, in Stepney much welfare work was being done by voluntary
associations. One of the earliest was started by-Mrs. Alice Model,
who founded the Jewish Sick Room Help Society in 1895, which was
allied to the Jewish Maternity Hospital in Underwood Road and the
Infant Welfare Centre subsequently attached thereto. Mrs. Model spent
an active life devoted to Infant Welfare, until her death last year.
The Jewish Maternity Hospital is now known as the Boarsted Memorial
Hospital and has new premises in Lordship Road, Stoke Newington.
In 1902 the Public Health Committee of the Stepney Borough
Council considered a report from Dr. Thomas advising the appointment
of two female Health Visitors, to be appointed in the first instance
for 2 years, at a salary of £100 a year. Their suggested duties
included:
(iv)