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same bed with parents, use of comforters, are matters calling for
warning and advice; and the need for cleanliness of the baby's
clothing and person has often to be insisted upon.
"I should like to lay stress upon the need for re-visiting.
"A printed card of directions for infant-feeding is, as a matter
of routine, left on the occasion of every visit; but there is needed,
as well, the verbal advice calculated to meet the individual need.
It is not always, on the first visit, easy to ascertain how much the
mother knows, and how much she needs to be told. One has
first of all to make her acquaintance, then ask a considerable
number of questions the answers to which are needed for statistical
purposes, and then to feel one's way towards the best method of
imparting information. First visits often fail in their due effect
just because of the difficulty in getting exactly the right kind of
sympathetic contact.
"My visits are almost invariably well received; the exceptions
are so few as to be really a negligible quantity. Amongst the
younger women there is a very genuine desire for information,
together with an intelligent appreciation of the fact that they
have a good deal to learn. As soon as visiting after the notification
of the birth of a child becomes the rule in any district, it
seems to be taken as a matter of course and to be looked for. It
is not, perhaps, too much to hope that from this beginning—this
acquiescence in being instructed—may develop the general conviction,
that child-rearing is a difficult art, requiring special
knowledge and definite preparation."
disinfectants.
Disinfectants are supplied by the Department for disinfecting
infected soiled linen, infected stools, sputa in phthisis, for personal
use in infectious disease. They are dispensed at the Maxey Road