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32
SECTION III.
MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE.
The Council's Maternity and Child Welfare Scheme is comprehensive in its
arrangements for the care and comfort of (a) expectant and nursing mothers;
(b) children under 5 years of age, and (c) foster children under 9 years of age.
Staffing.—Three whole-time medical officers are in medical charge of the
clinics, each devoting eight half-days per week to Maternity and Child Welfare
and three half-days to Tuberculosis. Four part-time medical officers are also
employed: one on three half-days, one on two half-days and two on one half-day
each, three of them for general work and one for the systematic examination of
toddlers. Three consultants have been appointed, one for the artificial sunlight
clinic, one for consultation in connection with cases of puerperal sepsis and difficult
obstetric conditions occurring at home, and one for the Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic.
The dental staff—three dentists and an anaesthetist— are part-time and are appointed
by the School Treatment Committee subject to the approval of the Council. The
health visiting staff now consists of thirteen health visitors: two of these are parttime
sanitary inspectors, and all but one, who is the Artificial Sunlight Clinic Nurse,
are Infant Life Protection Visitors. It is the practice of the Council to appoint
additional temporary health visitors during epidemics of measles.
Public Health (London) Act, Part XII.—Every birth occurring in the
Borough requires to be notified to the Medical Officer of Health within thirty-six
hours of birth and only a very small percentage of births are not notified. As
soon as a notification is received, a booklet dealing with the care and comfort of
mothers and infants is 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.
The Work of the Health Visitors.—The importance of home visiting and the
supervision of the health of the mother and child is now fully recognised and the
influence of the health visitor is greater to-day than it has ever been. As an agent
for teaching hygiene in the home her work is of enormous importance. The number
of visits paid by the Council's Health Visitors during the year is summarised in the
following Table:—