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52
Provision of Midwives.
The Borough Council has a scheme whereby the local district"
Nursing Associations provide for their nurses to attend confinements.
During 1934, the midwives of the Kilburn and West Hampstead
District Nursing Association attended 99 cases, whilst those of the
Hampstead District Nursing Association attended 32 cases. Of the
131 cases, 56 were attended in the company of a medical practitioner.
Patients are charged by the Associations according to their
means; in very poor cases no charge is made.
Compensation to Midwives.
The question of compensating midwives for loss of patients
referred by the ante.natal clinics to hospital for confinement was considered
towards the end of the year. The Council resolved that
private midwives, other than those attached to the District Nursing
Association, Maternity Homes or Hospitals, should be compensated
for loss of such cases at the rate of 10s. 6d. per case, which arrangement
the Ministry of Health sanctioned, suggesting the adoption of
the following conditions :—
(a) That in each case the patient will be required to confirm the
statement that she had engaged the midwife to attend her
confinement and had been referred by the midwife to the
clinic.
(b) That the Medical Officer of the clinic will certify that she
advised the patient to be confined in a Hospital or Home.
(c) That no payment will be made to the midwife where the
patient herself has applied to be confined in a Hospital or
Home.
Infantile Mortality.
The infantile mortality rate for Hampstead in 1934 was 53 per
1,000 live births.
Maternal Mortality and Morbidity.
Four women died in, or in consequence of, child birth during
1934. This represents a maternal mortality rate of 4.14 as compared,
with nil and 2.98 for the preceding two years.