View report page

12
Notifications were received of 54 sets of twins.
The percentage of births notified by parents was 10.8, by
medical men 4.5, by midwives 17, and by others—chiefly medical
students and lady midwifery students—was 67.7 per cent. The
mothers in this last group were all attended gratuitously in their
confinements. This means that in 1913, 2,322 Finsbury mothers,
or 2 out of every 3, were cared for during child-birth, and during
the subsequent lying-in period for no charge whatever, chiefly by
the medical students of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, University
College Hospital, the Royal Free Hospital, and by the midwives
and midwifery students from the City of London Lying-in Hospital
the Maternity Nursing Association, and the Royal Maternity
Charity.
This free treatment is so much appreciated that it is quite
common for mothers in the outlying suburbs to move their homes
temporarily into Finsbury so as to be attended in child-birth,
without payment, by the students. This is especially the case
with expectant mothers who originally lived in Finsbury within
the spheres of work of the various institutions, or whose parents
still live within these districts. This gratuitous maternity
attendance has its drawbacks as well as its advantages.
The mother, who is unable to pay for a doctor or a midwife,
supplements the services of the student by engaging a neighbour,
or a self-styled "nurse" to attend to her during the lying-in.
These "nurses" are often dirty, offensive, grimy sluts,
arrogant, self-assertive and excessively ignorant, and chiefly found
caring for women who are attended by medical students. One
of them pertinently observed:—
"I follers the young 'orspital doctors and they
follers me."
They live in or near all mean streets.
It is stated that their numbers have increased since the State
has paid "maternity benefit."