View report page

known during pregnancy to this department, it was only found
necessary to take special action in four cases. Of these cases,
two were sent to a hostel at "Ardmore," Buckhurst Hill, Essex,
and two to a hostel at "Sunnedon," Coggeshall, Essex.
The Council has not appointed a Social Worker for this
work, but there is close co-operation between this Department
and the Superintendent of St. Agatha's Moral Welfare Home,
Forest Gate, E.7, affiliated to Chelmsford Diocesan Moral
Welfare Association. Where necessary, an unmarried expectant
mother can be admitted to this Home or to the Diocesan
Maternity Home, Coggeshall, Essex (where she can be confined
and remain with her baby for 4-6 months after confinement).
Further, an arrangement with Essex County Council ensures that
the unmarried mother and her baby can receive care for three
months at "Ardmore," Buckhust Hill, Essex, a post-natal
hostel.
In actual practice, in 1946 the bulk of unmarried mothers in
West Ham remained under the care of their parents or other
relatives, and so were helped through the usual channels. No
request was refused to admit the child at a later date to a Day
Nursery, in order that the mother might be able to support herself
and her baby by going to daily work.
HEALTH VISITING. The year 1946 was not an easy
year for health visitors in this area, so severely damaged byenemy
air attack, and with so much re-housing and building
of new houses needed. The birth-rate has risen from 21.6 in
1945 to 26.8 in 1946, and this has necessarily meant heavy work
for the eighteen health visitors employed by the Council under
the Maternity and Child Welfare Scheme. It has entailed more
visits to expectant mothers and to children under five years of
age. Post-war home visiting differs from that of the pre-war
years: the women themselves face daily more problems, more
difficulties, more restrictions than in those years of 1920-1939
when Maternity and Child Welfare Services for their benefit
were being built up. The health visitors have always been
accepted in West Ham as friends rather than as officials, and
so their opinion and advice is sought in many and varied
problems. The year 1946 was full of these problems for the
health visitors, so that routine supervision of the children often
had to be superseded by a series of special visits in association
with particular needs or difficulties of the families concerned.
The clinic attendances have increased, and, in particular,
ante-natal work has been very heavy, so that it has not been
possible to establish, as was hoped, the separate sessions for
toddlers and for post-natal routine examination.
Seven health visitors resigned during the year—one on
superannuation, five to take up similar work elsewhere, and one
to use her knowledge in other spheres of nursing service. It
has become increasingly difficult to replace health visitors. This
widespread difficulty, which must cause great concern to
40