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Premature babies who require special nursing are transferred to
units at the British Hospital for Mothers and Babies or to the
Lewisham Hospital. When hospital nursing is found to be
necessary for premature babies born in the district and if transport
under normal conditions in an ambulance is considered
to be undesirable, then a doctor and nurse may be sent from
hospital with a mobile incubator to transfer the child.
During the current year it was necessary to transfer two babies
to the care of these units. Six other babies born prematurely in
the district were able to be nursed at home.
Low Birth-Weight Mortality
There exists a close relationship between birth weight and
mortality and in England and Wales some 58.9% of live-born
babies in the lowest weight category die within 24 hours.
Unfortunately, from available data, no distinction can be made
between the low birth weight resulting from a shortened gestation
period and that arising from slow foetal growth, although it has
been estimated that the latter is responsible for one-third of all
low-birth-weight babies. With modern methods of contraception,
estimating gestation periods is becoming progressively more unreliable
and the use of ultra-sonic scanning for this purpose is
increasing.
Not one of our eight premature babies born at home died
within the first 28 days of life although the neo-natal mortality
rate for low-birth-weight babies in England and Wales for 1971
was 108.0 per 1,000.

Maternity Outfits
In all cases of confinements, other than in hospital, maternity
outfits are made available and during the current year some 398
packs were distributed.