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Infant Welfare.
19
MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE.
As this is the paramount subject in public health administration
this year, it will be referred to more fully than other
subjects. The Urban Council, having recognised the importance
of the whole question of life-saving, has made considerable progress
recently. The Child Welfare Scheme has been concentrated under
one roof at Afon House, High-street, Mortlake, where a Day
Nursery has been started upon a voluntary basis, and controlled
by a voluntary committee. The children are received daily at a
cost of 6d. per head; the rooms are well equipped, and the matron
and two assistants (salaried), together with voluntary help, look
after the interests of the children while the mothers go out to
work. The usual attendance varies from 12 to 18 daily, and it is
hoped that, with an increase of staff, more children will yet be
received. The Medical Officer of Health visits daily to see that
the children are healthy. 1 his is essentially a war-time scheme,
and it is generally admitted that, in natural times, the place of the
mother is at home with her children, except in a few exceptional
cases.
In the same house the Surrey Educational Committee hold
their medical, ophthalmic, dental, and attendance clinics for the
school children of the district. The District Council also hold
their Child Welfare Centre there, when women and their children
receive advice from the Health Visitor and the Medical Officer of
Health.
The District Council now have a scheme for acquiring a ward
for necessitous or complicated cases of pregnancy. They have also
agreed that if it should become necessary to admit a case of
Puerperal Fever, and providing that we had the room for such a
case, an extra nurse trained in maternity work would have to be
engaged for the necessary period at a fee not less than two guineas
per week. If this scheme was amalgamated with the one proposed
by the Child Welfare Committee, viz., providing a bed for a
complicated or necessitious case of pregnancy, one half the cost is
recoverable from the Local Government Board.