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25
In November a special Maternity and Child Welfare Committee
was appointed by the Council, consisting of the existing
members of the Health Committee and of six co-opted women
members from voluntary organisations, and from other associations
interested in Child Welfare work, with a view to developing
the existing Maternity and Child Welfare work of the
Council in accordance with the Local Government Board's
suggestions.
At the end of 1919 the Council's comprehensive scheme
comprised the following centres, maternity and infant clinics,
day nurseries, etc:—
1. Municipal;—
(a) West Battersea Centre (Latchmere Baths).
(b) East Battersea Centre (Battersea Tabernacle).
2. Voluntary;—
(c) Battersea School for Mothers (two Centres,
Plough Road and Mundella Road).
(d) Women's League of Service (111 Bridge Road
West).
(e) Chislehurst Mission Maternity and Child
Welfare Centre (St. James's Hall, Ponton
Road).
(f) St. Mary's Hostel Rescue Home for unmarried
mothers and their children (Vicarage Road).
(g) St. Margaret's Day Nursery and Hostel
(Cambridge Road).
For administrative purposes the Borough was sub-divided
into six areas, in each of which a Maternity and Child Welfare
Centre is established, either municipal or voluntary. Each
centre is supervised by a trained health visitor, and to each is
attached a clinic attended by a qualified medical woman.
At the end of the year proposals were under consideration
for further development of the Council's Maternity and Child
Welfare Scheme. These included the provision of a Maternity
Home for the reception of maternity cases and for the training
of midwives for district service. The necessity for
this expansion of their scheme had become most urgent owing
to the fact that the Institutions which had heretofore served, to
a considerable extent, the needs of the Borough, were no
longer available. Moreover, the medical practitioners in the
district had practically eliminated midwifery practice from
their routine work, and the number of certified midwives was
inadequate to provide an efficient service, therefore,
for the Borough. The Committee felt that provision of