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35
HOME HELPS.
Assistance towards the services of Home Helps was granted in
49 cases. At the Town Hall a list of suitable women who are prepared
to act in this capacity is supplied to expectant mothers, and in necessitouscases
the cost of a Home Help may be defrayed by the Maternity and
Child Welfare Committee.
It was found, during the year, that only a small percentage of
patients confined in hospital were kept in for a period of 14 days or
over. An arrangement has, accordingly, been come to with the North
Middlesex Hospital to notify the Medical Officer of Health of such cases of
early discharge, and a Home Help is provided and, where necessary, the
services of a Municipal Midwife. In certain cases Home Helps are also
provided' during the later stages of pregnancy.
ACCOUCHEMENT BAGS AND MATERNITY OUTFITS.
Accounchement Bags are available at the Centres and are loaned to'
the mothers in suitable cases. Necessitous cases are given appropriate
consideration in the matter of payment, and Maternity Outfits are
provided and may be had at cost price.
CASES OF DISCHARGING EYE AND
OPHTHALMIA NEONATORUM.
Thirteen cases of Discharging Eye occurred during the year, of
which six were notified as Ophthalmia Neonatorum. This condition was
formerly notifiable to the Medical Officer of Health by both Doctor and
Midwife, but under the Public Health (Ophthalmia Neonatorum)
Regulations of 1926, the onus is placed upon the doctor alone. A midwife
is required under the rules of the Central Midwives Board to call in
medical assistance in all cases where there is "any inflammation of the
eyes, however slight." This is a great safeguard in the early detection of
ophthalmia neonatorum which is defined in the above-named Regulations
as "any purulent discharge from the eyes commencing within 21 days of
the birth of the child." Notification has done much to diminish the
disastrous sequelae which have so often, in the past, followed this disease.
Further, by the recent amendment of the above-named Regulations
by the Public Health (Ophthalmia Neonatorum) Amendment Regulations