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108
Notification of Births Acts, 1907-15.— Every birth occurring in the Borough
requires to be notified to the Medical Officer of Health within thirty-six hours of
birth. As a matter of fact, only a very small percentage of births are not so notified.
As soon as a notification is received pamphlets dealing with the care and comfort of
mothers and infants are sent by post to every mother. Subsequently, between the
tenth and fourteenth day, a visit is paid to the home by the Health Visitor who
decides on her first visit the necessity for subsequent visits. It may be stated,
however, that, broadly, the general basis of visiting is as follows : —three visits
during the first year and one visit in each subsequent year up to the age of five years,
or until the child goes to school.
The Work of the Health Visitors.— The Council's Health Visitors divide
their time between home visiting and attendance at the Centres. They are responsible
for the visiting of all children under school age in their respective areas, including
visits to cases of ophthalmia neonatorum, measles, zymotic enteritis, whooping cough,
pneumonia and anterior poliomyelitis, but in measles epidemic periods it has been
the practice to engage temporary Health Visitors for these particular visits.
The following Table, No. 81, shows the classification of visits paid by the Health
Visitors in 1932:—