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64
Child Welfare Centres
There are ten Centres in the Area where child welfare clinics are held. The
percentage of children under one year of age who attended for the first time during
the year continued the improvement noted in 1956 and is now at the maximum level.
Here mothers seek the advice and counsel of doctor and health visitor. The
majority of children are weighed at each attendance and the combination of weight
check and discussion on the child's beahviour, feeding, progress and general care
continues to be the basis on which mothers anxieties and fears are dispelled.
There are so many booklets and journals which publish information and
articles on infant feeding and child care as to be confusing to many who read them.
Mothers find that the child welfare centre is a good place in which to sort out and
obtain information which will be useful for the individual child. Arrangements for
vaccination and immunisation are also made at these centres.
The continuance of this preventive work has eliminated many conditions
which were common among children in the past and could well be present today
without this service. There is no doubt that the standard of child well-being
amongst those who attend the centres is very good indeed. In general the
children who attend are healthy, but if treatment is necessary the matter is referred
to the family doctor. Co-ordination between clinic, health visitor and family
doctor grows steadily in cordiality to the advantage of all concerned.