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31
Women who are obliged to work have great difficulty in
placing their infants in clean homes, as the following extracts
from the women sanitary inspectors' reports show:—
"Thirty-nine babies were found left in charge of unregistered
women, and 49 other mothers said they intended
going to work when they could find it, leaving their children
with neighbours, etc. These children are sometimes found
put out to be nursed by old women quite incapable of caring
for them, or else by young girls of 14 years who have just
left school. One baby was found with one of the latter of
very weak intellect. She had charge of the baby for ten
hours daily, and fed it by giving the comforter a dip into the
tinned milk at intervals.
Another child found in a very dirty state was being
cared for by a woman who had had 16 children of her own,
and had lost 10. A woman having the care of a baby of her
own, the perpetual care of an illegitimate baby, and the daily
care of another—her husband being out of work—does not
surprise us by losing two children from whooping cough.
During a visit to inspect a house I found a child shut
up in a cupboard during the temporary absence of its mother.
The infant was possibly quite accustomed to it, and did not
seem at all surprised on being discovered.
The advisability of inspecting these premises and making
enquiries re the care of the infants seems unquestionable."
"It is regrettable that any mother with an infant
under 12 months old should be obliged to go out to work, for
the conditions under which the children are left are anything
but satisfactory. The majority of houses where nursed
children were taken were found on inspection to be dirty and
ill-kept. Besides this, the woman chosen to look after the
child during its mother's working hours often possesses a
family of small children herself, which necessarily means that
only a limited amount of attention can be given to the nursed
baby."
Infant Life Protection.—Reference has been made in
this report to the condition of homes in which nursed children
are seen. This brings us to a consideration of the existing
powers of the Infant Life Protection Act in its relation to
infantile mortality. At the present time there is no legal or