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Clinics.
At the beginning of 1930 there were two Municipal and seven
Voluntary Maternity and Child Welfare Clinics in the Borough;
at all Clinics, sessions were held for infants and toddlers; antenatal
sessions were held at both Municipal and at lour of the Voluntary
Clinics. A detailed report of the work of the Voluntary Infant
Welfare Centre is of interest, showing the scope of the work at
these Clinics subsidized by the Maternity and Child Welfare Committee.
Voluntary Infant Welfare Centres.
There are seven Voluntary Infant Welfare Centres in the
Borough of West Ham; three are conducted by the Plaistow
Maternity Hospital and District Nurses' Home; a fourth, at Lees
Hall, Barking Road, by the South West Ham Health Society;
one at the Stratford Day Nursery, Welfare Road, under the auspices
of the Women's League of Service; a sixth Voluntary Centre
is conducted by Trinity Mission at Oxford Road, Stratford;
and the remaining Centre is held at the Given Wilson Institute,
Pelly Bridge, under the auspices of a private voluntary committee.
A. Plaistow Maternity Hospital and District Nurses' Home.
(1) Chesterton House Centre, Balaam Street, E.13.
This Centre is the largest of the P.M.C. Centres. It serves
a large area of the Borough in the Plaistow district. The centre
is in charge of a trained Sister, who is also a certified midwife,
and it forms a training centre for the pupil-midwives and district
nurses working at the Nurses' Home.
Antenatal Work. There are two antenatal sessions per
week, a doctor being present at each session. The times of
meeting are Monday mornings and Friday afternoons. All the
mothers examined at these Clinics have booked the Plaistow
Maternity Hospital midwives for confinement, either in the Hospital
or at home. Individual mothers are not examined by the
doctor at every visit.
Infant Welfare Work. There are four Infant Welfare Clinics
each week, held on Wednesday and Thursday mornings and
afternoons; a doctor is present at two sessions, viz. Wednesday
morning and Thursday afternoon. At the other two sessions the
mothers and children are seen by the Sister-in-charge: the children
are weighed and advice given. Milk foods, cod liver oil preparations,
and simple drugs are sold at a cheap rate to the mothers.
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