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During 1970 home confinements accounted for 481 out of a total of 3,409 births. There
were 292 early discharges from hospital attended by the domiciliary midwives and 122 of these
were actually delivered by the domiciliary midwives in hospital. This trend towards more deliveries
of appropriate cases by domiciliary midwives in hospitals coupled with the scheme of attachment
of nurses to general practices described earlier in this report represents a potent phase in the
integration of the health services and at the same time it is in line with the 1970 Peel Report
on Domiciliary Midwifery and Maternity Bed Needs.
The number of ante natal and post natal clinic sessions held by midwives was 339 out
of a total of 480 during the year. Antenatal care and its expression in statistics are likely
to be affected favourably by present trends of co-operation and integration of services.
MIDWIFERY TRAINING
The number of midwives recognised as teachers for the district training of pupil midwives
was 10 in the year (unchanged from 1969) and the number of pupils dealt with by them increased
from 40 in 1969 to 42 in 1970. In Appendix B, page 169 of this report reference is made to
the integrated training scheme with Queen Mary's Hospital and to the need for the teacher
midwives to have brief refresher courses. This became necessary because of the earlier introduction
of pupil midwives to domiciliary work. This may become more pressing if or when the scheme
with the Woolwich Group of Hospitals is realised.

6,277 visits were made by the nursing auxiliaries during the year.
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