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37
(4) MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE CENTRES.
At the beginning of the year Infant Welfare Clinics were held
twice weekly and Ante natal Clinics twice monthly at the Essex
House Maternity and Child Welfare Centre.
In March, 1939, on completion of the new Health Centre at
North Worple Way, Mortlake, it became possible to transfer half of
the work to that Centre and it was arranged for four Infant-welfare
sessions per week and four Ante-natal sessions per month to be
held, the mothers and infants from Barnes parish attending at the
Essex House Centre and those from the Mortlake parish attending
the clinics at the North Worple Way Centre, thus relieving the overcrowding
which had existed when only one centre was available.
On the outbreak of war the buildings in use as maternity and
child welfare centres were both taken over for Air Raid Precautions'
purposes for use as first aid posts.
In order that the facilities available at the Ante-natal and Infantwelfare
clinics held at these Centres should not be interrupted the
following alternative arrangements were at once put into force:—
The hire of two suitable premises, one in Barnes and one in
Mortlake, was arranged at which mothers could continue to obtain
supplies of milk, etc., for their children.
Provision was made for the attendance at the Public Health
Department of expectant mothers and young children in whose case
consultation with or supervision by the Assistant Medical Officer for
Maternity and Child Welfare was required.
Ante-Natal Clinic.
During the year 155 mothers attended at the clinic; of these
139 were expectant mothers who attended as new cases. The number
of attendances made by the mothers at the clinics was 414.
The number of expectant mothers who attended the Council's
Ante-natal Clinics represented 38.4 per cent. of the total notified
births for the year. In addition to those expectant mothers who
attended at the Council's Clinic there were 15 mothers who had
booked their confinements at Hospitals, or Maternity Hospitals,
and attended the Ante-natal Clinics of those institutions; this
corresponds to a further 3.7 per cent. of the total births in which
mothers, not under ante-natal supervision by doctors or midwives,
attended at an ante-natal clinic, equalling a total of 42.1 per cent.
under ante-natal clinic supervision.