View report page

130
10.—For the information of the Committee, the Maternal Mortality rate in St. Pancras
for the last five years has ben as follows :—
1931; 1932; 1933; 1934; 1935.
2.4 5.1 3.7 40 4.7
Average 3.9.
Average for London for 1931/1934, 3.2.
Average for England and Wales for 1931/1934, 4 18.
(N.B.—The above maternal mortality rates are per 1,000 live and still births.)
Maiti.and Radford,
Mcdical Officer of Health.
Ante-natal Care. As the friends of many families in the Borough, the health visitors
are the natural confidants when a babv is expected. This results in a kind of informal
notification of pregnancy so far as the clientele of the Welfare Centres is concerned.
Reference to Table IV. on page 112 will show that during the year 2,996 visits were paid to
1,378 expectant mothers. From Table III., page 105, it will be seen that 1,144 expectant
mothers made 4,985 attendances to the ante-natal clinics at the various centres included in
the Council's scheme. The total number of births during the year was 2,389.
In addition to consultations held at the Centres maintained by the Borough Council
are those at the General and Women's Hospitals, both in and adjacent to the Borough. Classes
in Mothercraft are held at the various Centres, and also massage treatment for expectant
mothers.
Provision of dinners (at some Centres), milk, and also of dental treatment for expectant
and nursing mothers is another facility. For particulars of this scheme see pages 106-7,
and 122.
A scheme of co-operation in Ante-natal work between the Borough Council and
University College Hospital has been in force since January 1st, 1928, and this is being
extended to bring the Hospitals' Maternity Section under the administration of the Medical
Officer of Health.
Care at confinement.
Midwives.
In the Metropolis, the supervising authority for midwives is the London County
Council. According to figures supplied by that authority in January, 1937, the number of
midwives who, in 1936, had notified their intention to practise in St. Pancras was 89. Only
22 of this number are engaged in private practice, the remainder are on the staff of various
hospitals and institutions in the Borough.
Private midwives are not subsidised by the Borough Council, but a subsidy is paid
for each approved necessitous case attended in the patient's home by midwives on the staff of
certain hospitals and by midwives employed by the Maternity Nursing Association.
The subsidy is not paid in cases where " Maternity benefit " is payable under the
National Health Insurance Act.
Midwifery.
There are a large number of institutions, situated either within or near the Borough,
which provide midwifery attendance, either at the patient's home or by admission as
in-patients. There is at present no arrangement under which midwives acting in the capacity
of maternity nurses attend cases with students at the patients' homes.