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57
MATERNAL MORTALITY.
During the year systematic enquiry has been made
into every maternal death belonging to the borough.
In the majority of cases I have received very courteous
and valuable assistance from the medical practitioners
who attended the patients. Unfortunately in some
cases owing to the patient not having obtained medical
attention until a late stage in her illness or having
failed to acquaint her medical attendant with the full
facts of the matter it has proved difficult to report very
fully and the actual cause of death has sometimes been
left in doubt. The cases investigated fall into the
following groups :—
(а) Septicaemia following abortion, 3.
(b) Other cases of Septicaemia, 2.
(c) Pyonephrosis and Pyelitis of pregnancy, 1.
(d) Diseases and accidents of pregnancy and
parturition, 4.
(e) Pulmonary conditions complicated by preg
nancy, 3.
Two regrettable and significant features of these
investigations may be pointed out : —
(1) the deaths resulting from abortion. This may
reasonably be presumed to be considerably less
than the number of cases in which abortion
has been sought. In the absence of adequate
information concerning birth control among
working mothers it is, I am afraid, likely that
the dangerous practice of seeking to produce
abortion will continue ;
(2) the fact that in the majority of cases, the
mother did not attend the Council's, or indeed
any, Maternity Clinic.
Pew factors would conduce more to a reduced
maternal death rate than the regular attendance of every
expectant mother at the Municipal Maternity Clinic.