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Since January, 1936, each mother who booked the district
midwife has been supplied with a sterilised maternity outfit, and,
since January, 1938 the supply has been gratis.
Forty-seven of the 173 cases attended during the year were
dealt with by the relief midwife.
It is recorded on page 42 et seq., that at the end of 1938 it
became necessary to close the Council's maternity hospital permanently.
The future of the district midwifery service which was
directed from the hospital then became the subject of serious
consideration. Though the Council in 1937 had felt unable to
agree to the proposals of the London County Council for the absorption
of the service, the new position resulting from the closure of
the hospital, and the impossibility of providing additional relief
for the midwife caused the Council to reconsider the matter, and
on 21st December they decided to discontinue the district service
and to ask the London County Council to take the midwife into their
staff of domiciliary midwives.
The service was actually closed down on 31st March, 1939.
The County Council were prepared to adopt the Council's proposal
but the midwife was unwilling.
Like the maternity hospital the district service thus ceased to
function after eighteen years of useful existence. It had its own
important part in the Council's maternity services, and it may
fairly be claimed that it was popular. Upwards of 2,600 confinements
were conducted by the district midwife and only two maternal
deaths occurred at the patients' homes.
As in the case of the maternity hospital it is not possible to say
that the loss of the service will be severely felt, since after the
passing of the Midwives Act, 1936, the London County Council
developed their service in such manner as to provide similar facilities
available to all. Prior to this however the district service had held
a unique place in the life of the Borough.
BOROUGH MATERNITY HOSPITAL.
The Borough Maternity Hospital was situate at 19 and 20
Bolingbroke Grove, overlooking Wandsworth Common. It was
established soon after the war, and opened for the reception of
maternity cases in February, 1921. There was accommodation
for 30 patients at one time.
The district midwifery service for the attendance of the district
midwife on patients in their own homes was also directed from
the hospital.