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32
Post Natal.
No. of attendances made during the year 475
Other Ante-Natal Services.
In addition to the facilities provided at the Borough Council
Centre, 221 patients received Ante-Natal treatment at the St.
Alfege's Hospital, making 1,472 attendances in all ; whilst the
British Hospital for Mothers and Babies, Woolwich, was responsible
for Ante-Natal supervision in regard to 189 cases, 70 of whom were
out-patients. The total number of attendances made was 1,120.
The Nursing Sisters of St. John the Divine state that 47 mothers
attended their Centre making 221 attendances in all.
Midwifery Services.
The Midwives Act will come into force as far as London is
concerned on the 1st January, 1938. The object of the Act is to
secure the organisation throughout the country of a domiciliary
service of salaried midwives, with a view to improving the maternity
services generally and reducing maternal mortality. The Metropolitan
area for the purposes of the administration of this scheme
is divided into areas. This Borough belongs to Area E and is
therefore grouped with Woolwich, Lewisham, Deptford and Camberwell.
Municipal midwives appointed will be selected officers of the
London County Council. They will be responsible for the antenatal
supervision of the cases they are booked for ; it will be one of
their duties to see that their cases are ante-natally examined at a
Welfare Centre or by a private practitioner.
It is anticipated that this scheme will work in harmony with
the services provided by the Borough Council. In connection with
the scheme a panel of consultants will be available for difficult
domiciliary confinements, the practitioner in charge being in a
position to call upon the services of any consultant on the panel.
It is envisaged that an emergency service to be called a transfusion
service will be available where acute emergency arises.
Infantile Mortality.—The total number of deaths under
1 year of age was 67 as compared with 66 for the previous year.
The Infantile Mortality Rate is thus equal to 50 per 1,000 Births.
This compares very favourably with the low figure returned last
year, viz., 49. The average for the last 10 years is 62.
The Infantile Mortality Rate for the County of London is 60,
and that for the 125 large towns 62. The following are the local
rates :—