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In 1938 the Council midwives attended 56 cases and the Coulsdon
Nurse 105 cases. In addition, there were seven midwives acting
privately in the Urban District. In 1945 the Council's midwives
attended 72 cases and other domiciliary midwives 89 cases. Most of the
latter were attended by the Coulsdon Nurses as only a very small number
of midwives now attend privately.
The analysis included in the following section indicates the proportion
of the total births confined by midwives.
Hospital Accommodation for Maternity Cases.
In 1929 the Council contributed towards the provision of a maternity
block of six beds at the Purley Hospital, three of which beds were
reserved for the use of cases referred to the Hospital by the Council's
ante-natal clinics. In this way provision was made for the institutional
confinements of a small proportion of the residents, but from the number
of applications it was obvious that increased accommodation would be
required.
During the pre-war years an attempt was made to obtain sanction
to the establishment of a municipal maternity home but this was not
approved in view of the maternity accommodation being provided (68
beds) at St. Helier County Hospital, the foundation stone of which was
laid in March, 1938. The Hospital was opened in March, 1941, but
immediately and repeatedly suffered war damage. Unfortunately more
recently acute shortage of staff at the hospitals has limited very severely
the advantages anticipated from this provision of maternity accommodation
by the County Council.
Pending the erection of St. Helier Hospital an arrangement was
made with Queen Charlotte's Hospital and in 1938 ten cases were admitted,
while 61 were admitted to Purley Hospital and 64 to Redhill
County Hospital. During the war period the use of maternity accommodation
at the London Hospitals has been negligible and greater use
has therefore been made of the County Hospitals and especially of the
private Nursing Homes, as can be seen from the following analysis:—

It will be noted that the domiciliary midwives Have dealt with a
steadily declining proportion of the births. in spite of the restricted
hospital accommodation.
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