INFANT AND MATERNAL WELFARE

1. Medicine, Disease and Society in Britain, 1750 - 1950 INFANT AND MATERNAL WELFARE Lecture 14

2. LECTURE AIMS AND OUTLINE • From public health to social medicine - Physical deterioration and national efficiency • Infant and maternal welfare - Social medicine agenda - Policies and education - How effective were measures?

3. SOCIAL MEDICINE: 1880-1930 • Shift state interest fromcontrol of disease ( e.g. sanitary reform & vaccination)to the promotion of health By - Improving social conditions - Providing health education - Increased provision of services

4. THE BOER WAR 1899-1902 AND NATIONAL EFFICIENCY • The Boer War led to a specially appointed Committee on Physical Deterioration in 1903. • The Committee explored why so many army recruits were unfit. • 1904 Committee report - no evidence of long-term physical deterioration in the British population, but they did make these recommendations: a) Medical inspections of children in schools b) Free school meals for the very poor c) Training in mother craft.

5. INFANT MORTALITY • End of the C19th, Medical Officers of Health observed and analysed infant mortality. • Education Act 1906: meals to be given to school children. • Education Act 1907: established medical inspection of schools. • Notification of Births Act 1907: local officer of health should be informed within 6 weeks of a birth so a health visitor could visit. • System of notification was made compulsory in 1915.

6. INFANT MORTALITY • Maternity and Child Welfare Act 1918 - local authority to set up a maternal and child welfare committee - enabled local authorities to provide a range of services e.g. health visitors, day nurseries and food and milk. • Ministry of Health 1919 - Dept. devoted to infant and maternal welfare

7. The photographer’s caption for this vivid illustration of domestic poverty was ‘Distressing scenes in the East End. All the food in the house – a little butter, sugar and a nearly empty tin of milk. July, 1912’.

8. MOTHERHOOD AND EDUCATION • General method of education was leaflets on infant management. • Lectures (poorly attended) and infant consultations also offered. • Voluntary agencies opened Schools for Mothers. • First ‘School for Mothers’ – St. Pancras, 1907. • Combination of classes and health talks, individual consultations, advice on feeding and weighing the baby. • Target audience = upper w-class (poor with irregular earnings or small earnings).

9. ST PANCRAS SCHOOL FOR MOTHERS 1907

10. Infant Welfare Clinic. (c.1914)

11. A charity, founded in 1907, the St Pancras Welcome offered a comprehensive range of services to mothers and babies. These were not free, but available for a small fee. Leaflet advertising the new Mother’s and Babies’ Welcome in St Pancras, London, 1907.

12. CONCLUSION • Infant and maternal welfare was an important part of the state’s objective to improve national efficiency. • It is unclear whether infant and maternal welfare policies were primarily responsible for the fall in infant mortality. • Policies did carry a strong ideology of motherhood. • Emphasis on better child-care and motherhood reinforced women’s traditional role. • W-class women were thought to be in greatest need of instruction.