Closely linked with the problem of skilled midwifery, care of
the working mother is the problem of arrangement for her
domestic life during her disablement.
In the _Home Helps Society_ a movement has been inaugurated
which, if widely extended on the right lines for clearly
subsidiary purposes, would prove of incalculable benefit to
working mothers, and so to the general community. The scheme
provides, on a contributory basis, the assistance of trained
domestic helpers for women who are incapacitated, especially
in illness or childbirth, from attending to the normal duties
of the home. A Jewish society has been in existence for
twenty years to meet the needs of poor Jewesses in the East
End of London, but the general scheme came into existence
under the Central Committee for Employment of Women to
provide employment for women who have been thrown out of work
owing to the war. Three months is considered an average
period of training, but a shorter time is sanctioned in
special cases. The women are trained under supervision in the
homes of families and in certain approved institutions. In
the Jewish society no special period of training is demanded.
If a candidate is competent upon appointment she is sent out
at once. In Birmingham similar help is afforded by what is
known as the "nine days'" nursing scheme, and Sheffield has a
provision for a municipal allowance to a mother needing such
help in a special degree. North Islington Maternity Center
has a local scheme for home helps, managed by a subcommittee.
Encouragement has been given to these schemes by the
sympathetic interest in them of the medical women acting for
the London County Council as inspectors, under the Midwives'
Act. Similar arrangements have been proposed in various parts
of the country.
The second is from the Report of the Women's Advisory Committee of the
Ministry of Reconstruction on the Domestic Service Problem.