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132
There is a distinct trend towards confinement taking place in
an Institution or Maternity Home.
The Retreat, Ross Road.
This is a home for unmarried mothers and their babies conducted
by the National Free Church Women's Council, and aided
by an annual grant of £650 from the Croydon Council. Besides
the Matron and Nursing Staff, an honorary lady medical officer
attends the Home when necessary.
The following figures give the main details regarding the work
carried out in 1938, and I am indebted to Dr. Sutherland, the Hon.
Medical Officer of the Home, for them:—
No. of beds for patients 18
No. of cases admitted 48
Average duration of stay 41/2 monts
No. of cases delivered by (a) Midwives 40
(6) Doctor 5
No. of cases in which medical assistance was sought
by a midwife 26
No. of cases notified as Puerperal Pyrexia
No. of cases notified as Pemphigus Neonatorum
No. of maternal deaths
No. of infant deaths (a) Still-born 3
(b) Within 10 days of birth
As is seen, the duration of stay much exceeds that in ordinary
maternity homes. The girls are kept, with their babies, until
suitable situations can be secured for them, and when necessary
foster-mothers are found for the babies. Whilst the girls are in
the Home they are employed in domestic work. Some of them
go out to daily work, but reside in the Home.
Still Births.
During 1938, 95 still births were registered in respect of Croydon.
Of these 46 were male babies and 49 female; 3 male and 7
female were illegitimate. The proportion of still births to living
children was as 1 to 35. The still birth rate was 2.8 per cent, of
the total births, the same as in 1937.
The still birth rate, on the same basis as for Infant Mortality,
was 28.5 per 1,000 births.