[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Enfield].

  • Enfield (London, England). Urban District Council.
Date:
[1914]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Enfield]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/64 (page 13)
    13 NOTIFICATION OF BIRTHS. Although the Infantile death-rate is not so high as it has been some years, it is, nevertheless, capable of considerable reduction. With a falling birth-rate it is our bounden duty to conserve infant life as far as lies in our power; to shield the children from epidemic diarrhoea and other infectious diseases; and to take all practicable measures for the prevention of such diseases, and for promoting hygienic conditions in the feeding of infants. The machinery for doing this lies to our hand in the Notification of Births Act, 1907. I cannot conceive that anyone who has given the matter any consideration can doubt the value of systematic visitation of the homes of infants by a capable and experienced woman under the direction of the Medical Officer of Health. Such a woman would, inter alia:— (a) Give instructions to mothers:— (1) as to the rearing and feeding of infants ; (2) the importance of cleanliness of utensils used for the storage of milk, and of the child's bottle. (3) as to the keeping of food, especially milk. (4) as to the condition of the house with a view to the maintenance of cleanliness and ventilation, and the prevention of any accumulation of filth or other conditions harmful not only to all the residents, but especially so to young and delicate children. (b) Would make inquiry into the causes of deaths of infants with a view to the removal of any causes which may have had influence on the infant mortality of the District ; and, as I would only recommend the employ ment of a woman who was qualified as a Sanitary Inspector, she would, if she had any spare time:— (c) Assist the Sanitary Inspector by visiting places in which female labour is carried on, or in which female outwork is done, etc., etc. The expense of this would not be prohibitive. This Act is now in force in over 390 districts with a total popu lation of over 20,000,000 or upwards of 56 per cent. of the population of England and Wales; and I would again seriously urge on the Council the importance of adopting the Act, and thus strengthening materially what is at present a weak link in their chain of defence against the lamentable and preventable loss of life which occurs year after year. At present, by the courtesy of the Registrar of Births, I am supplied with a list of births of all children registered ; the houses are visited and hand-bills giving advice on the feeding of babies