ABSTRACT
The Health for All strategy of 1981 seemed a bit more precise when it talked of the aim of maximising economic and social life. From 1918, local authorities were authorised to provide salaried midwives and health visitors as well as infant welfare centres, and in time the child health services became professionalised and increasingly included visits to mothers of new-born children in their own homes. The common features of the countries identified were a heavy emphasis on nutrition, at least some land reform, very well-developed primary education which covered females, above average equality of income, priority given to health and community participation and quite well-developed rural health care. Education improves a woman’s capacity for self-care and maintenance of good health during pregnancy: it enables her to acquire greater knowledge and learn better child care practices. The attempt to isolate factors which are favourable to health is useful for analytical purposes but only tells part of the story.
