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The Care of Illegitimate Children. The actual work
in this connection is carried out for us by the Wimbledon, Merton
and Morden Moral Welfare Association, who provide both the
home where the mothers stay prior to their confinements and
subsequently, until rehabilitation is accomplished and also the
welfare officer, who exercises supervision over them after their
discharge, or to whom cases in need of help are referred in the
first instance.
The home is the Haygarth Witts Memorial Home at 54,
The Ridgway. The Councils of Merton and Morden, Wimbledon
and Mitcham accept the financial responsibility for cases
in their areas.
It is to the everlasting credit of this Association, that they
responded so readily to the suggestion that they should again
open the home for this work at a most difficult time when they
had been deprived of their own premises.
During the year our Council has borne the cost of four
unmarried mothers in this home at a total cost of £82 15s. Od.
Sterilised Maternity Outfits. Sterile outfits for use at
confinements may be had from the welfare centres or from the
Council's midwife. They are supplied at cost price and, in
necessitous cases, at half price or free of cost according to
means. During the year, 50 outfits were supplied at cost price.
Dental Scheme. The dental scheme has been continued on
a two sessions per week basis. The future of this service is by
no means clear. It was started as an ancilliary to the maternity
and child welfare scheme and was intended to ensure that dental
treatment necessary for the maintenance of the health of the
mother or baby should not be neglected through financial circumstances.
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