[Report 1950] / Medical Officer of Health, Newport (Gwent) County Borough.
- Newport (Wales). County Council.
- Date:
- 1950
Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Credit: [Report 1950] / Medical Officer of Health, Newport (Gwent) County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![REPORT OF THE LADY MEDICAL OFFICER, MATERNITY’^ AND CHII.D WELFARE. The facilities provided under tlie Maternity and Child Welfare Scheme have been those of former years, hut the introduction of the National Health Service lias lessened the attendances at the Infant Welfare Centres here, as in otlier areas. The provision of free medical care for motliers and children under the National Health Service has ensured that no ailino' mother or child need g’o without medical care becaxise of the dread of financial burdens, and should do much to reduce the severity of much illness amongst young children, for many parents, who in the past would have hesitated to call in medical aid until a child’s illness had become advanced, will now seek medical aid at the first signs of the onset of illness. Although the attendances at tiie Infant Welfare Centres are slightly less than those of 1949, those at tlie Clinics have increased. The health of the infants and children is good and the priority rations and vitamins supplied by the Ministry of Food to those groups and to Nursing and Expectant Mothers liave done much to bring about this im- ])rovemeut in health, and it is to he deplored that still some mothers do not make full use of this advantageous scheme. As in former years the demand for hospital accommodation for con- finement cases has been very great. In many homes accommodation is in- adequate and quite unsuitable for confinements, in otlier cases, where homes are shared the accommodation may he suitable but the owner of the house is unwilling to allow the mother to be confined there, and hospital confinement has to be arranged for. Also there is no doubt that under the new Health Act mothers find it is more expensive to have a confinement at home than in hospital. In the past, mothers usually liad relatives or friends who were willing and able to-look after their homes and (diildren during the mother’s ill- ness or confinement, but now-a-days siudi help seldom seems available, partly because of the greater amount of employment amongst women. The Home Help Service has heen of much use to mothers in those circumstances and so have the facilities ])rovided hy the Children’s De|)artment. The Nursery Schools by acce])ting the care of the younger children have helped not only the mothers but have been of considerable benefit to the children.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28866915_0022.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
