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Milk has also been sent in specially deserving cases, where the
baby is only partly breast fed.
In the Summer the members of the Sewing Class were taken for
an outing to Epping Forest by brake. A very enjoyable time was spent.
Gifts of clothes, sent to the School by friends, have been
distributed to deserving cases or sold for a few pence.
We have now 10 voluntary workers in addition to the two women
Sanitary Inspectors and the two Doctors, the latter only accepting a
very small honorarium for their services.
We are very grateful to the Women's Imperial Health Association
for their second grant of £50 and also for enabling us to send a delicate
nursing mother to the country for several weeks during the Summer."
MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE.
It will be shown that the mortality amongst children under 5 years
of age is five or more times greater than the mortality of any other
quinquennium up to 65 years. An analysis of the causes of deaths
during this period reveals the fact that much of this wastage of life
is avoidable. Diarrhœa and Enteritis are due to contamination of
food, that care would avert. Bronchitis and Pneumonia are largely
due to improper exposure, and unsuitable clothing. They are frequent
sequelae of Measles and Whooping Cough, and affect principally children
between their first year of life and the age at which they are entered
on the school register. The great majority of deaths from these causes
are due to ignorance of the simplest principles of nursing and hygiene.
These subjects are now being taught in the schools, and hopes are
entertained that a more enlightened generation is arising. Deaths from
suffocation are due too often to drunkenness, and always to the fact
that the child is not given a cot to sleep in. Deaths from complications
arising during labour could frequently be avoided by skilled treatment
either at home or in hospital.
In addition to deaths occurring after birth there is the death
roll of children still-born. Of still-born children born after the 28th
week of pregnancy, notification is or should be made to the Medical
Officer of Health, but there is no available means of ascertaining the
numbers of miscarriages or abortions occurring annually. These are