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Maternal Mortality.
In 1929 there were sixteen deaths of Kensington women from diseases or accidents directly
connected with child-birth, and this figure represents a death rate of 6.3 mothers per 1,000 births.
The rate for London for 1928, the last year for which figures are available, was 3.59, and for
England and Wales 4.42.

In 1929, there were 2,544 births in Kensington and of these 480 may be said to have occurred
in families which are regarded as "above standard" financially and do not come within the scope
of the Council's maternity and child welfare scheme. In respect of 1,483 of the 2,064 births
in families regarded as coming within the scope of the Council's scheme, the expectant mothers
received ante-natal advice at the special clinics held at the Queen Charlotte's Nurses' Home or
the infant welfare institutions. The women who gave birth to the remaining 581 children may
have received professional ante-natal attention from private medical men or at hospitals, but
it is probable that the majority did not secure for themselves the advantages of that skilled advice
which is now generally recognised to be of the greatest value.
Although 72 per cent. of the expectant women in Kensington received some form of ante-natal
advice or care, there were unfortunately sixteen deaths of mothers in confinement during the
year, which is a considerable increase in the number for the preceding year.
These sixteen deaths give a maternal mortality rate of 6.3, which is the highest figure for
Kensington for many years past and well above the average for the country generally.
The high rate of maternal mortality which has been maintained in this country for many
years has recently arrested considerable public attention. About two years ago, the Ministry
of Health established a Departmental Committee to investigate the problem throughout the country
and I have had the privilege of serving on the Public Health Sub-Committee of that Departmental
Committee. In Kensington, there has been, in connection with the investigation, the closest
co-operation between private doctors and midwives on the one hand and Dr. Remington Hobbs,
the Council's consultant gynaecologist, and myself on the other. The doctors and midwives have
submitted to us full details of the illness and the treatment given in each case and these have
been sent to the Ministry of Health. I should like to be able to review all the facts in this report,
but it would be a breach of confidence so to do, for, in order to be quite sure that every possible
source of information was made available to the Public Health Department, it was necessary
to give an assurance that the information obtained would be regarded as confidential.