MOTHERS' HELP

Taupo Times, Volume II, Issue 82, 12 August 1953, Page 3

MOTHERS' HELP

RECUPERATION CENTRE 1 Brentwood Recuperation Centre is the only place of its kind in Elngland and a B.B.C. woman reporter broadcasting in the European Servrte, described this unique house. It lies in beautiful eountry outside Manchestthe heairt of Britain's industrial North, and overtired mothers go there for a period of rest and recuperation. Every yeatr since 19-46 some hundred overworked mothers have stayed at Brentwood with their children and been restored to health and a renewal of hope. They aire recommended for admission by local authoritises, hospital almoners and the like and if they are very poor pay nothing for their stay, although most of them manage to pay something. The warden of the oentre is a Quakea* and she is much loved by her staff and everyone who comes to know her. i The mothers who go to Brentwood look after their young babies themselves, but the older children are taken entirely off their hands and looked after by a motherly woman in th,e nursery. In the evenihg their mothers bath them, play a little and then put them to bed. The children ?s cots are in their mothers * rooms and as space is very short two or three women may sometimes Hiave to share. In the morning they all lend a hand with the housewark and tidy their own rooms but the rest of the day is theirs. None of the cooking is done by them but there is a cookery class and a sewing and mending class that they can attend. Women come to Brentwood for various reasons. Some need only rest, otheirs have worries that have made them neglect their children. Some have martial difficulties, some need training in how to run a honie, others are suffering from general ill-health. In fhe lairge majority of cases the treatment given is successful. There was no doubt at all, said the B.B.C. reporter, that oue of the most important elements in the cure was the personality of the warden, her accessibility at all times and her unfailing understanding. When the women leave they make a eompletely fr.esh start, and some of them. are so ehanged physically by rest and regular meals, good air and freedom from worry that they are eompletely transformed and their pathetie, thin children became pinkcheeked and hearty. with enormous appetites.