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86
Mayfield Convalescent Home
On May 1st I visited the Convalescent Home for Mothers,
Mayfield, Sussex, and at the time of writing this report I have
just revisited it.
The Home is sufficiently large for the accommodation of
eight mothers and babies. It is a fairly large detached house
with a small garden and a large field containing a shelter. On
the ground floor are a common room for the mothers (which also
serves as their dining room), a nursery (which is also used as a
night nursery), matron's office, spare bedroom (in case any
mother should be ill and have to be separated from the rest of
the household), milk room, washing room and kitchen premises
(scullery, pantry, etc.). The common room and nursery are both
large, light and airy.
On the first floor are a large, light, airy dormitory, containing
eight beds, bedrooms for the matron, sister, day and night nurses
and two maids, two bathrooms, two lavatories and sluice room.
In the dormitory, each mother is provided with a locker or half
a chest of drawers, and three cupboards in which suitcases are
stored, shoes, etc., kept.
The house is tastefully decorated and spotlessly clean, and
there are usually flowers in nearly all the rooms.
The staff dine in the same room as the mothers and have the
same food. I had lunch each time I visited the Home, and the
food was good, well cooked and nicely served. The dietary
includes an allowance of one pint of milk per head per day and
fresh fruit daily, in addition to an abundance of fresh vegetables.
The mothers are given a cup of tea at 6 a.m., when they
feed their babies. Breakfast is at 8.30 a.m. At 10 a.m., milk or
soup is provided. Lunch is at 1 p.m., tea 5 p.m., supper 8.30 p.m.,
and a cup of cocoa or Ovaltine is served at 9.30 p.m., bedtime.
Any mother who wishes to rest longer in bed in the morning can
have breakfast taken up to her.
The matron is running the Home on proper lines and free
from irksome restrictions on the liberty of the patients. There
are no rules except that the babies must be fed by the clock, and
the mothers are expected as a general rule to be in bed by 9.30
p.m.