[Report 1971] / Medical Officer of Health, Keighley Borough.

  • Keighley (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1971
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1971] / Medical Officer of Health, Keighley Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Care of Mothers and Young Children (Section 22, National Health Service Act, 1946) Family Planning. During the year a direct Family Planning Clinic was introduced. This was held on Wednesday afternoon of each week and special arrangements were made for mothers to attend the clinic who because of family commitments, children at home etc. might otherwise have found it difficult to do so. Dental Treatment for Expectant and Nursing Mothers. The Dental Section at the School Clinic continued to treat mothers and young children who were referred to them. Scheme for the Notification of Congenital Defects Observed at Birth. This scheme provides for the notification of all congenital de- fects observed at birth. For this purpose the birth notification card has been overprinted in order to record the relevant details. A total of 17 notifications were received during the year. Care of Premature Babies. The domiciliary midwives have been specially trained in the care of the premature baby. A portable incu- bator has been provided by the Authority which may be brought into use by the midwife at any time of the day or night. Phenylketonuria Testing. The Guthrie test for screening babies for phenylketonuria was undertaken during the year. Hospital ma- ternity units are responsible for screening infants in hospital on or after the sixth day and the Local Health Authority staff, babies born at home or discharged from hospital before the sixth day after birth. All tests on babies normally resident in Keighley were negative. Child Welfare Centres. The number of children brought to the Centres during the year was 2,029, who between them made 13,118 attendances. Both these numbers show a slight increase on the pre- vious year. Of the children who attended, 581 were born in 1971, 684 in 1970 and 764 in the years 1966 to 69. Again these numbers imply that the mothers are finding the Centres of value especially in the first year of their child’s life. Developmental Assessment. The scheme of Developmental Assess- ment adopted by the West Riding County Council was undertaken during the year by the health visitors. It is, of course, too early yet to decide whether this will be more efficient than the old time methods. Screening Tests for Hearing. Some children are born with a hear- ing loss which might not be recognised for a long time as the loss may only be of certain sounds; nevertheless, it is important that this should be recognised early in life so that the child can be given special help or treatment. For this reason all children are given an appointment to attend a special hearing testing session when they are approximately six months of age in order that simple tests can be carried out to show whether the child’s hearing is normal. Only
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