London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Battersea 1924

Report on the health of the Metropolitan Borough of Battersea for the year 1924

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30
18 out of 517 tested, which works out at only 3.4 per cent., is a
low one, lower than the published statistics would have led one to
expect, and speaks well for the morality of the borough.
Of the eighteen expectant mothers thus discovered to have
syphilis, three either refused treatment or came up so late in
pregnancy that it was useless to start it.
The other fifteen were treated during the remainder of their
pregnancies. Of these fifteen, eleven had healthy babies with
negative Wassermann tests, one had a baby stillborn, apparently
due to a prolonged first labour lasting three days in a woman of 36,
but it showed no signs of syphilis. One had a healthy baby whose
blood could not be tested as it was removed from the Borough,
and two of the mothers have not yet been confined.
These results were remarkably good, and the practice of routine
testing of the blood of all mothers attending the ordinary ante-natal
clinics has thus strikingly proved its value.
This does not exhaust the Ante-natal work carried out under
the Maternity and Child Welfare Scheme. A very considerable
amount of visiting and reporting of cases is carried out for the
Obstetric and Gynaecological Departments of the larger Hospitals
in connection with Battersea patients attending those Institutions.

The following is a summarised statement showing the Hospitals and the work carried out during 1924:—

Ante-natal.Post-Natal.Total.
1. St. Thomas's Hospital7749126
2. General Lying-in Hospital, York Road9256148
3. King's College Hospital1010
4. St. George's Hospital77
186105291

Maternity Hospital.
The Borough Maternity Home was opened early in 1921.
The Hospital is situated at 19 and 20 Bolingbroke Grove,
directly overlooking Wandsworth Common. In addition to being a
Lying-in Hospital, it is a recognised training Institution for PupilMidwives,
and a District Midwifery Service is also run in connection
with the hospital (see page 33).