asked the Minister for Health what action he proposes to take to deal with the nutritional defects and consequential deformities amongst infants in the poorer class section of the population in Dublin city.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Nutritional Defects in Dublin Infants.
2.
I presume that the reference in the question to "nutritional defects" is to incorrect dietary habits of expectant mothers and not, as would appear from the question, to the diets of infants.
I presume also that the question is prompted by a comment, published in the press, by the Master of a Dublin maternity hospital, following the publication of an interim report on a survey carried out, with the assistance of moneys which I made available, on the eating habits of a sample number of expectant mothers attending that hospital. The survey did not deal in any way with a possible connection between incorrect dietary habits of expectant mothers and the birth of congenitally deformed infants and the specialist in question has indicated that the opinions he expressed are personal ones, not strictly derived from the results of the survey.
A study of iron-deficiency anaemia in expectant mothers is being carried out in another Dublin maternity hospital and a much more comprehensive study of the factors interfering with intra-uterine development of infants born in Dublin city is being carried out by the Medical Research Council. As part of the last-mentioned study, an enquiry is being made into the sociological, nutritional and other characteristics of expectant mothers. When the results of both these studies, which are being financed by grants which I have provided, are available in due course, we should be in a much better position to say to what extent congenital defects in infants are attributable to defects in the dietary of the mothers.
In the meantime, the education of expectant mothers in correct dietary habits is continuing. The three Dublin voluntary maternity hospitals, for instance, devote particular attention to this aspect at ante-natal clinics. The leaflet prepared by my Department on ante-natal care, for circulation to expectant mothers availing themselves of Health Act maternity services, devotes a section to this important matter and the recently revised arrangements with doctors participating in the services are designed to encourage women to contact their doctors at the earliest stages in their pregnancies. Free milk supplies are available to expectant mothers in the lower income group.
I feel that it is important to bear in mind that lack of nourishment, where it exists, does not necessarily result from poverty but can result as readily from eating the wrong type of food as from an inadequate supply of it.