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10
Subsequent to Confinement.
In cases of puerperal pyrexia, the services of a consultant are available when necessary.
Nursing mothers, who are in necessitous circumstances, are provided with a supply of
milk to supplement their diet.
Dental treatment is provided at a nominal charge to nursing mothers who are unable to
afford necessary treatment, and they are also provided with artificial teeth in suitable cases in
accordance with an approved scale.
No provision has been made for examining and advising mothers who have not recovered
their proper health after the birth of their children. A number of women in this condition are
met with at the Infant Consultations, but the circumstances do not permit any examination of
the mother. The necessity for the provision of a clinic for such examinations is as great, if
not greater, than that for providing dental or other treatments, and there is no doubt that
much ill health could be avoided if such a clinic were established.
Child Welfare.
Home Visiting.
The Health Visitors call at the homes where a birth has occurred in all cases where such
visits are considered to be advisable. If deference to the wishes of a very limited number of
medical practitioners in the town, home visiting was not offered in certain cases where the doctor
indicated that such was not desired. It was found, however, that in many of the cases so indicated,
the mother either brought her baby to the Centre on her own initiative or sent a request for the
Health Visitor to call. It is now found that these requests that the Health Visitor should abstain
from visiting have now been abandoned even by those doctors who raised the question in the
first instance, as they have no doubt found by experience, what was pointed out to them in the first
instance, that the visits of the Health Visitors are complementary and in no way antagonistic
to the services of medical practitioners in caring for the health of mothers and infants.
The visits paid to homes by the Health Visitors during the year were as follows:—
To expectant mothers 222
To children under 1 year 3,240
To children under 5 years 4,586
Other visits 1,646
Winter School.
In accordance with the arrangement which has been in force for several years, one of the
Health Visitors attended a short revision course during the winter. By this means one Health
Visitor has an opportunity, every third year, of refreshing her knowledge of the work and of
becoming acquainted with any modern developments in connection with Maternity and Child
Welfare.
Infant Welfare Centres.
The infant consultations were held on four afternoons weekly, that at Murray Park,
Whitton, being held on Monday and those at York House on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
afternoons.

Treatment is not carried out at the Welfare Centres. When medical or surgical treatment
is required the cases are referred to private practitioners or to hospitals. Treatment was advised
for 75 children during the year and was obtained in 70 cases.