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37.
MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE.
As indicated in my Annual Report for 1929 the
management and control of the three Maternity and
Child Welfare Centres was taken over by the Borough
Council on 1st April, 1930.
The work and re-organisation necessary to carry
it on are fully described by Dr. Thomson in her interesting
report.
Dr. Thomson emphasizes the fact that the main
function of the Maternity and Child Welfare work is
the promotion of good health in the mothers and children
and the prevention of disease. In this work every
effort is made to obtain the co-operation of the medical
practitioners and Hospitals who are concerned more
especially with the actual treatment.
Report by the Medical Officer in charge of the
Maternity and Child Welfare Department (Miss
Ruby Thomson, M.B., Ch.B., D.P.H.) on the work
of the Department.
In the last Maternity and Child Welfare Report an
important change was foreshadowed for 1930, and this
has materialised by the transfer of the premises and
work of the Fulham Maternity and Child Welfare
Voluntary Committee to the control of the Borough
.
Council. The history of the growth of this Committee
was given by the Medical Officer of Health in his report
for 1929, and need not be repeated here. Briefly, it
may be mentioned that from June 1919 to March 1930,
the Council, in addition to making an annual grant of
£500, provided the Medical and Health Visiting staff
of the Clinics, while the Superintendent, her Assistant,
and the Housekeeper at Greyhound Road Centre were
arranged for by the Voluntary Committee.
The Superintendent of the Infant Welfare Centres,
Miss Williams, had held her post since 1908, and had
spent twenty-one years in devoted service to the parents.