[Report 1966] / Medical Officer of Health, St Helens County Borough.

  • St. Helens (Merseyside, England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1966
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1966] / Medical Officer of Health, St Helens County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    intercurrent ante-natal care and observation to the general practitioner or Local Authority Clinic. The above outlines the main points of the altered system of the ante¬ natal services in the town, and the effect within a very few months was to diminish the numbers of ante-natal mothers passing through Local Authority clinics. This became so marked that it was necessary to carry out a complete review of the ante-natal and infant welfare sessions conducted by the Local Authority, and it was found that in centres where double ante-natal sessions had been conducted, one session would now suffice, and in other centres, ante-natal sessions could now be combined with an infant welfare session. This streamlining of sessions in the various centres led, of course, to a situation | where there was an opportunity to extend the toddlers services, and especially to tackle energetically the question of ascertainment and screening of children between 1 and 5 years for physical and mental handicaps, a question which had been exercising the Department for some time. Throughout the year, therefore, there was a gradual reorganisation of : the clinic services with increased emphasis directed towards the building up ; of special toddlers sessions. Opportunity was also taken to train members of l the staff in the work of conducting relaxation clinics for expectant mothers, |j and contact was made with Cowley Hill Hospital to encourage mothers j attending the Hospital Clinics to go to the various Centres for relaxation 3 exercises. During 1966, 1,374 births (966 being St. Helens cases) took place in the ) Cowley Hill Maternity Hospital, 417 St. Helens births in the Whiston Hospital, i Prescot, and 16 St. Helens births occurred in other hospitals. j