Page:Women Wanted.djvu/366

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330
WOMEN WANTED

her. All of the municipally subsidised institutions have had their accommodations increased since the war. There are the Municipal Maternity Hospitals, where care is free, or there is the Mutualite Maternelle, the self-supporting maternity club through which one may make arrangements for accouchement. There are free meals for mothers at the Cantines Maternelles, which are spread over Paris. Are there other children in the family, so that their care is a burden to the mother? She must not tire herself with the housework. They will be taken to the country at municipal expense and she shall go to a Refuge to rest in preparation for the coming confinement. There are free layettes to be had at every Mairie. A limousine will even take the lady to a hospital if necessary. The military automobiles of the army are subject to requisition for this purpose by L'Office Central d'Assistance Maternelle et Infantile of Paris.

There is also definite financial assistance. The Government will pay to Azalie de Rigeaux ten francs and fifty centimes a week for four weeks before and four weeks after the confinement, with an additional three francs fifty centimes a week if she nurses the child. To this her employer tells me he will add his bonus for the baby, 105 francs if she has been in his employ for one year, 135 francs after three years, and after six years it will be 165 francs. All indications point to market quotations on the French baby rising even higher. Prof. Pinard, the celebrated accoucher of Paris, who has assisted into the