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Though the clinics are busy, time must always be found to
explain various instructions or changes that worry the mothers,
but it is here that the health visitors do such excellent work.
They carry on the same advice in the clinics, in the home and
above all in the Mothercraft Classes they run so efficiently.
There they deal in greater details with all these matters and in
this way the educational work is blended with the supervisory.
At these talks all the changes occurring in motherhood are
explained and the development of the baby outlined. This is
followed by demonstrations such as baby bathing and the taking of
"Gas and Air" during home confinement. They are taught exercises
and how to relax completely and are instructed how to use these
methods when labour starts. In this way they are, in most cases,
assisted in securing an easy, natural confinement. This has been
going on many years in Tottenham and the service is there for
every woman to use and enjoy. When one reads of a great foreign
power lauding such methods we should not forget that we have been
practising them in our midst for years.
The co-ordinating work of the clinics is vital. If we find
a patient ailing in any way it is our general rule to refer to
their own doctors for care and treatment. If a patient is booked
for hospital and an abnormality arises, again she is immediately
put in touch with the hospital consultants. Also if a patient
is booked for a home confinement and any abnormality develops
which might bring a hazard to normal delivery at home, she is
referred to hospital forthwith.
We encourage patients to return to our clinics after delivery;
first with the new baby and then for her post-natal examination.
Many minor ailments are found in that way and are put right.
We also like mothers to return to the mothercraft classes and
tell the other patients about their confinements. This we find
gives the mothers confidence and makes a more natural performance
of delivery. As one young mother said to me when she had had
her first baby-a son weighing 8 lbs,"I breathed deeply as I
had learnt in the class and relaxed completely. It was all over
in 20 minutes - there- s nothing to it, Doctor", Well, that may
have been an extra easy case but it was by no means isolated and
it shows what knowledge, instruction and the removal of fear can
do.
This service is available to every mother of the Area and no
one should be denied all the help and encouragement the clinic can
give.