[Report 1957] / School Medical Officer of Health, Exeter.

  • Exeter (England). City Council
Date:
1957
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1957] / School Medical Officer of Health, Exeter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    76/130 (page 76)
    The year’s work followed the usual pattern and the young women and girls dealt with came from every type of home. (See Table XX). St. Olave’s Home. Report for the year ending 31st December, 1957. Number of admissions .... .... 17 (including 5 Exeter residents) Number of children adopted .... .... 9 (including 4 Exeter mothers’ babies) Number of children taken by mothers or relatives .... .... .... .... 6 Number of children fostered .... .... 2 There have been a number of structural improvements and considerable re-decoration effected in the Home during this' period. Staffing has not been an easy matter. Since December, 1957, the domiciliary midwives have been responsible for the midwife care in the Home; Dr. N. SimS' (Medical Officer to the Home), and in some instances the mothers’ own doctors, are responsible for the medical care. St. Nicholas House. (Owned by the Exeter Diocesan Moral Welfare Council). This Home, which has been exempted from registration], under the Public Health Act, 1936, by the Council, on certain conditions, continues to be busy. 48 mothers were admitted ; 25 of the 46 mothers discharged took their babies with them : 14 babies went to adopters, 2 went to institutions and 5 to foster i parents. The average length of stay was four and a half weeks'* before and five weeks after confinement. One Exeter mother with her baby was in the Home at 1st January, 1957, and was discharged during year, having been resident ten months. This: case has had a happy conclusion, the baby, after a period in a Council nursery, having been taken home by her mother, now happily married. No other Exeter mothers were admitted in 1957. The Council’s midwives delivered 34 mothers in the Home. >1 li Buddle Lane Day Nursery. Priority cases have accounted for 40% of those attending-,' the nursery, but no child has been admitted without substantial I'eason. Two babies (7J months and 9 months), both priority cases, were admitted and have progressed well. The standard of home care of all children has been good, and their general, physical and mental health has been satisfactory. The average daily attendance during the year has been 16. Since early February, the nursery has been closed on Satur- days because the average Saturday attendance had been so poor.