Local Government Board Memorandum — Maternity and Child Welfare
A complete scheme would comprise the following elements, each of which will, in this connection, be organised in its direct bearing on infantile health:
1. Arrangements for the local supervision of Midwives.
2. Arrangements for—
Ante-Natal.
(1) An ante-natal clinic for expectant mothers.
(2) The home visiting of expectant mothers.
(3) A maternity hospital or beds at a hospital, in which complicated cases of pregnancy can receive treatment.
3. Arrangements for—
Natal.
(1) Such assistance as may be needed to ensure the mother having skilled and prompt attendance during confinement at home.
(2) The confinement of sick women, including women having contracted pelvis or suffering from any other condition involving danger to the mother or infant, at a hospital.
4. Arrangements for—
Post-Natal.
(1) The treatment in a hospital of complications arising after parturition, whether in the mother or in the infant.
(2) The provision of systematic advice and treatment for infants at a baby clinic or infant dispensary.
(3) The continuance of these clinics and dispensaries, so as to be available for children up to the age when they are entered on a school register—i.e., the register of a public elementary school, nursery school, crèche, day nursery, school for mothers or other school.
(4) The systematic home visitation of infants and of children not on a school register as above defined.
Local Government Board, Whitehall, S.W.
July, 1914.