View report page

39.
The Maternity and Child Welfare Centres.
There are three Maternity and Child Welfare
Centres in Fulham distributed over the Borough, at
90-92, Greyhound Road; 170, Wandsworth Bridge
Road; and Melmoth Hall, Eustace Road. They have
so far been managed by a Voluntary Committee, subsidised
by the Borough Council, and a Superintendent
and Assistant Superintendent have been maintained by
this Committee. The medical officers, the Health
Visitors and the clerks belong to the Public Health Staff
of the Council, and work under the administrative control
of the Medical Officer of Health. Mention has
already been made of the decision of the Council to
assume full responsibility for the Centres as from April
1st, 1930.
In addition to my own full-time service, Dr. G. F.
Hardy takes certain Clinics each week, and there are
three part-time medical officers, Dr. Florence M. Wilson,
Dr. Lilian Butler, and Dr. Dorothy Leverkus, who
succeeded Dr. Dorothy Stewart in July, 1929. Dr.
Leverkus had previously acted as a locum tenens at the
Centres, so was already familiar with the work when
she came on the regular part-time staff. One of the
Health Visitors, Miss Watts, resigned, and Miss Leach
was appointed to her office. Miss Baron, who had been
Maternity and Child Welfare clerk for eight years left
in July to be married and Miss Noble was appointed in
her place.
The Clinic sessions are arranged as follows:—
1. For Nursing Mothers and children up to five years of age.
2. For children between the ages of two years and five years
(the Toddlers' Clinic).
3. For expectant mothers.
Leaving the third group for mention under a separate
heading (the Ante-Natal Clinics), some account may
be given here of the other two groupings. The separation
is an artificial one, for the ideal of Infant Welfare work
is to consider the mother alongside her young children
from infancy up to five years old, i.e., school age. As
a matter of experience, however, there is a large