Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/239

223 Extensions of Nursing Field 223 mittee in 191 1, by the Pregnancy Clinic of the Boston Lying-in Hospital in 191 2, and a number of other organizations have done similar work. All our American work on such lines now has a central source of stimulus and information in the Children's Bureau, established by Act of Congress in the Department of Children's Commerce and Labour (1912), whose Bureau head from the beginning has been Julia Lathrop, a college woman, and formerly a Hull House resident. In its publications nurses may find the whole history of child-saving efforts before and up to its inception, and the most complete informa- tion for those undertaking constructive work in child care, as, for instance, the perfecting of birth- registration acts and administration, the pre-natal care of the mother by the visiting nurse, studies of morbidity and mortality, the inspection of milk supplies, the equipment and management of milk stations, the instruction of mothers in infant feed- ing, the conduct of baby clinics, organization of municipal campaigns and "baby weeks," Little Mother Leagues and classes, anti-fly campaigns and fresh-air propaganda. The extension of nursing care to the people of rural districts, has developed more slowly than the work in towns and cities. In the older and better