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90
With regard to the proposition for ancillary services; home
helps under the present circumstances do not seem so much in demand
as they were before the population got used to living under
closer conditions as the result of the War. There seems to be much
more, what. I may call neighbourly assistance, offered than there was
before, and a greater disposition on the part of the patients to
utilize the services of a neighbour that they know, rather than
somebody that they do not, but we do find that where the home help
has been in the house and they realize how much her services contributed
to the mental comfort of the patient, and the happiness of
the home, they are freely asked for should a second confinement
occur.
With regard to sterilized Maternity outfits, I consider the Committee
might well take this matter over. At present all that has
been done is that the Mothers' Committee at the Douglas Road
Centre are providing for small numbers. They were made at working
parties held by the mothers, and are kept at Miss Scott's disposal
for such as want them. There is no doubt that in the future
there will be a much greater use made of sterilized outfits and that
confinements will be carried out more on the lines of the Operating
Theatre than of the ordinary bed-side. The number of cases of
infection that have occurred by haemolytic streptococci found in the
throats of the nurse or doctor will I think ensure that masks are
worn in the same way as they are in an Operating Theatre.
With regard to education, the Health Visiters are carrying on
a day to day education in the homes of the women, but I think the
periodic public lectures by people of more than local repute would
be of very definite value, and I would suggest as an experiment
that two lectures be given say in March or April at the Council
House, when it would be possible to see by the attendance and the
questions asked what the value of such methods of propaganda
would be likely to be. My own expectation is that we should get a
crowded audience and the results would be extremely valuable.