The Children's Bureau and Health Education

Abstract

Health education is woven into every phase of the health services of the Children's Bureau of the Federal Security Agency. The act of Congress that created the Bureau authorized it to investigate and report . . . upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of children and child life among all classes of our people. . . The Bureau's first study was of why so many babies died. It was soon followed by the publication of two booklets for fathers and mothers, Prenatal Care and Infant Care, to take to thousands of parents, especially those living in isolated places, knowledge about care of mothers during childbirth and of babies during their first year. The booklets were part of the Bureau's campaign to reduce infant mortality, then alarmingly high in the United States. Since those early years the series has grown to five booklets distributed to millions and is the chief channel of communication between the Bureau and the parents of the country. It is the Bureau's most easily recognized health education. Another outstanding aspect of the Bureau's health education is seen in its maternal and child health services and services for crippled children authorized by the Social Security Act, passed in 1935 and amended in 1939 and 1946. Health education is coordinated with the services that reach mothers and children in maternity clinics, child-health conferences (in some places called well-child clinics), hospitals, and their own homes (brought there usually by a publichealth nurse), that reach children in school, and that reach crippled children during the various phases of medical-care programs. Health education offered along with health services has an excellent chance to hit its mark. Giving services creates opportunities to explain their value to people who have had little experience with medical care in any form. While getting services is a good time for people to learn the advantages of seeking medical services early instead of delaying until illness has become serious. It is a good time to replace their fear of doctors and hospitals, if they have it, with a knowledge of ways to avoid ill-health.