[Report 1925] / School Medical Officer of Health, County Council of the Parts of Lindsey (Lincolnshire).

  • Lindsey (England : County). County Council.
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1925] / School Medical Officer of Health, County Council of the Parts of Lindsey (Lincolnshire). Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    on the frequent absence of even decent accommodation for a normal labour in many overcrowded houses, and on the need in complicated cases for specialist treatment under good conditions. Ante-natal Work. The Health Visitors have paid in all 3,732 ante-natal visits during the year, rather more than 4/5ths of them having been paid by the part time Health Visitors in their capacity of District Nurses. The attendances at the ante-natal Clinics and those of expectant mothers on the doctors at the Infant Welfare Centres has been 266. Much more ought to be done. More Ante-natal Clinics are needed, and where they exist they should be held as a rule once a week. At present an Ante-natal Clinic is held at Gainsborough three times in four weeks, at Scunthorpe once a fortnight, and at Cleethorpes once a month only. Under this system both patients and midwives lose sight of the particular week in which the patients should attend, and successful running of the Clinic becomes very difficult. Unfortunately with our present supply of doctors we are almost at the limit of what we can do in this respect. The motor cycle allowance granted to Health Visitors should enable them to pay more visits to expectant mothers, and with a third woman doctor we should now be able to attack with hope of success the problem of a further reduction in infant mortality. Home Visiting. 4,903 births were registered in the County as compared with 5,134 in 1924. There was failure to notify in i2'5o% of the cases as compared with i2‘52% in the preceding year. It is disappointing that there has been no real diminution in the number of un-notified cases. The average time which elapsed last year between the birth of a baby and the first visit of the Health Visitor has been 20.] days in the notified cases, as compared with 49 days in the un-notified. The importance of this lies in the fact that the baby is often weaned before the end of the first month, so that a visit after 7 weeks often fails in respect of its chief object. The number of infants seen and reported on for the first time was 4,877, as compared with 5,540 last year, but the total number of visits on infants and children is a little greater than last year. The following table shows the whole number of home visits paid by the Health Visitors during 1925 :—