View report page

Shortage of maternity beds and nursing staffs means that only
mothers suffering severe ill-health or presenting abnormalities in labour
can be delivered in hospital. The remainder of normal deliveries, from
whom it is anticipated the future population will grow, have to be conducted
at home with such help as Nursing Associations and Home Help
Schemes can provide. One cannot help but feel that if the nation is to
prosper, more encouragement and help should be given to women having
normal deliveries. It should not be more expensive to have a baby at
home than in hospital, and the standard of service rendered in the home
should be made comparable with that obtaining in the best of maternity
homes.
The present attitude of some of our legislators, who, when faced
with overcrowding difficulties for large families, can only suggest that such
families be limited, cannot be too strongly deprecated. Already, as
shown in this report, although the death rate continues low, the birth
rate, after the post-war boom, shows signs of falling, and we will soon
be faced again with the population problems which disturbed the minds
of many in the late 'thirties.
The present difficult lot of the mother and housewife makes it
inevitable that voluntary parenthood will continue. Only when housing
difficulties and the difficulties experienced in obtaining domestic help are
overcome, will the child-bearing population of the country produce a
birth rate sufficiently high to balance the death rate, and thus relieve the
anxiety of our more far-seeing legislators, of a falling and ageing
population.
The infantile mortality rate, as will be seen on page 16, was 23.7 for
1947, being lower than the corresponding figure of 30.72 for 1946. This
compares very favourably with the figure of 41 for England and Wales.
Deaths in infants below one year of age are considerably less than
they were, and the general health of this group of the population shows
considerable improvement. The Government's welfare food scheme
probably contributes very largely to this improvement. The Government
vitamin preparations, however, are not always well tolerated by
infants, and to supplement and give a wider variety of choice of products
containing vitamins A & D, B, and C, the Corporation during the year
offered for sale or assisted supply a considerable range of proprietary
preparations. This service was very much appreciated by mothers
attending infant welfare centres, and during the year the turnover of these
articles, together with additional sources of proprietary brands of dried
milk, amounted to over £2,000.
With the present scheme of rationing continuing, many mothers find
difficulty in balancing the dietary of infants. Amongst children attending
infant welfare centres, deficiencies of protein and fat were frequently
noticed, producing such minor bony deformities as knock-knees and weak
ankles. The monotony of the present diet bears hard upon youngsters,
who constantly crave for greater variety, especially of protein and fatty
foods, which unfortunately continue in short supply.
During the year the routine infectious diseases did not give rise to
anxiety, but, as will be seen from the table on page 44, we had eight cases
of Acute Anterior Poliomyelitis, but fortunately no deaths,
8