1 JUNE 1929, Page 20

- -- [To the Editor - of the SPECTATOR.}'--. • '

• • . • . • -. . - • • •-• $ -- SIR,—Your contributor's article on the subject of mothercraft.

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in the Spectator recently does not quite do justice to the work

performed at infant welfare centres, •generous though - his

remarks are.- - - _ There is at-least insufficient ground for the statement that mother § do-not attend the' centres unless iheir-childienare ill. Certainly at the Hammersmith Infant Welfare Centre, where for some time I have helped as a voluntary worker, not only 'do the mothers receive ante-natal instruction, but from the first time the newly arrived infant is brought by its mother,,

its progress is a matter of concern to the doctor personnel. Week by week, a note is made of the weight and general condition of the child, and many ailments are thereby warded off.

Moreover, the mother, by regular contact with highly trained, won-ice, cannot help .lieqUiring sound notkins of hygiene. Lectures on subjects connected with infant welfare are given throughout the year, and the niothers themselves may chose the subjects on which they Specially. wish be enlightened. That sneh Iledge should be implanted earlier in- life -is doubtless most desirable, but until it can be put into actual practice the Welfare centres are to be con- gratulated-upon doing -all that is in their power to Supplement the present lack Of hygiene education —I ain,Sir &c E*nyzu .M." BtrrEs.

10 St. George's Court, Gloucester -Road, S.W.7.