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101
Maternity and Child Welfare.
The activity of the Council in respect of the condition of
the health of expectant and nursing Mothers and of children
under 5 years of age, is carried out in conjunction with
several voluntary and other organisations, the chief of which
is the Plaistow Maternity Charity, whose nurses attend
nearly 50 per cent. of the total births occurring in the
Borough—either in the Maternity Hospital at Howards Road,
or in the patients' own homes. This organisation is subsidized
by the Council and there is a definite working arrangement
between them and the Medical Officer of Health in order to
prevent any overlapping of visiting between the Council's
Health Visitors and the Plaistow Maternity Charity workers.
There is at present only one Municipal Infant Welfare
Centre, viz., at Silvertown, which is visited by Dr. Tivy on
every other Friday, and by the Health Visitors twice weekly.
Several Infant Welfare Clinics are functioning in
different parts (see attached table) all of which are
subsidized by the Council and work in close co-operation
with the Medical Officer of Health and Health Visitors.
I should like to tender to the Doctors and Staff of these
various Societies my sincere thanks for the great help given
by them to this branch of my Department, and to congratulate
them on the good work they are doing.
A Maternity block was opened in 1923 at the Queen Mary's
Hospital for the East End in 1923. The Council retain
10 beds in this block—which is one of the most up-to-date
in the whole country. Ten beds are also retained at the
Plaistow Maternity Charity Hospital, which, though not so
modern a building as that iust mentioned, is none the less
every bit as modern as regards the treatment placed at the
disposal of the patients.
Children under five years of age are, by agreement,
treated at St. Mary's Hospital, Plaistow (see attached list of
cases admitted during 1925).
Orthopaedic treatment was instituted in March, 1924, and
is carried out at the Invalid Crippled Children's Society
Hospital, Balaam Street. Up to the end of 1925, 18 cases
under 5 years of age had been treated.
The Forest Gate Sick Home (an Institution belonging to
the West Ham Guardians) has a Maternity block where a
large number of confinements take place, including those
taking place in respect to unmarried mothers.
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