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MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE.
Report of the Senior Assistant Medical Officer for Maternity
and Child Welfare (Dr. Helen Campbell).
Notification of Births.
The birth rate for 1931 was 17.7. There were 6,194 live births
and 190 stillbirths (total births, 6,384) officially notified in accordance
with the Notification of Births Act, 1907. By this Act the
birth of an infant should be notified to the Medical Officer of Health
by the doctor, nurse, friend, or relative of the patient within 36
hours of the birth. Unfortunately, in certain cases, this notification
is forgotten by the attendants, or, the doctor relies on the
nurse or vice versa. The result is that the existence of an infant
may not be revealed to the public health authorities until about
six weeks after birth, when the birth must be registered.
Number of Births in the Borough in the last 5 year:—
1927 1928 1929 1930 1931
5991 5913 5766 5606 5266
These figures represent the net number of births of West Ham
residents.
Health Visiting.
In April, 1931, six additional fully-trained Health Visitors
were added to the existing staff of twelve, making a total of
eighteen municipal full-time Health Visitors. For some time
prior to this date there was difficulty in maintaining satisfactory
and adequate home visiting of infants and more particularly of
children from 2—5 years of age. This was due to the rapid extension
in a comparatively short space of four years of the clinic
work, necessitating the attendance at clinics of the Health Visitors.
Home visiting of expectant mothers, etc., had increased
with the commencement of new antenatal clinics.
In addition to the eighteen Health Visitors (full time) already
mentioned, there are thirty-four nurses attached to the Plaistow
Maternity Hospital who undertake the routine health visiting of
a large number of the infants attended at birth by the midwives
from that training school. The Voluntary Infant Welfare Centres
employ a nurse or nurses who do not do routine home visiting,
but who may visit such infants attending these Centres, about or
for whom the Medical Officer requires a special report or supervision.
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