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Domiciliary midwifery service
The number of home confinements attended by the domiciliary
midwives continues to decline.
There were 526 home confinements this year as against 725 in
1967 but the number of early discharges from hospital has increased
from 490 in 1967 to 589 in 1968. The early-discharge
scheme is now well established and is very popular with many
mothers. It is satisfactory to be able to report that there were
fewer unbooked cases who left hospital early although there were
still 71 mothers who took their own discharge from hospital.
Whether booked or unbooked, all mothers who are discharged
before the tenth day after the birth of their babies are attended by
the midwives. Unbooked cases sometimes give rise to difficulties
because the midwife does not know the mother and adequate
preparations may not have been made in the home for the early
return of mother and baby.
There has been close co-operation with the obstetric units in
the local hospitals. Towards the end of the year plans were made
for Queen Mary's Hospital. Roehampton, to hold an ante-natal
clinic each week in the William Harvey Child Health Centre. This
clinic is due to start early in the new year, and one of our midwives
will attend each session. Plans are also in hand for a
General Practitioner Obstetric Unit at the Weir Hospital, Balham,
and it is hoped that midwives will be able to undertake deliveries
there.
At the end of 1968 we terminated a long association with the
South London Hospital by taking over from them the domiciliary
midwifery service covering a small area near the hospital. Our
existing staff can absorb this small amount of additional work
and we shall continue to provide district training and experience
for pupil midwives.
Tn August, 1968, the Educational Supervisor of the Central Midwives
Board visited Wandsworth and she reported that the domiciliary
midwifery service and the teaching of pupil midwives were
very satisfactory.