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* Included in this figure are 37 persons who were visited at the special request
of the general practitioner or hospital.
t Included in this figure are 38 persons who were visited at the special request
of the general practitioner or hospital.
+ Included in this figure are 25 persons who were visited at the special request
of the general practitioner or hospital.
Domiciliary Midwifery
The number of home confinements has continued to decline, and at the
same time the number of early discharges from hospital has continued to increase.
This position should level off in the near future, assuming that there will always
be a number of women who prefer to have their babies at home.
In September the General Practitioner Obstetric Unit at the Weir Hospital
opened. This enabled general practitioner obstetricions and local authority
midwives to look after their patients during labour, and arrange for planned
discharge within a period of up to 48 hours. The Weir catchment area includes a
part of Wandsworth in addition to a small area of Lambeth. The scheme provides
a service which has the advantage of giving the mother the protection of hospital
confinement, and the benefits of a much shorter separation from her family, with
continuity of care throughout, by the same medical and midwifery staff.
Early in the year the Guthrie Test replaced the Phenistix test for
phenylketonuria in part of the Borough, and had extended to the whole area by
the end of the year. Domiciliary midwives took over the responsibility for
following up hospital confinement cases where for some reason a re-test was
required.
At the end of the year there were nine midwives directly employed; the
Lambeth District Nursing Association and the South London Hospital continued
to provide a service on an agency basis in parts of the Borough, and participated in
providing 24 hour coverage.
It is worth recording that there was a number of home confinements
sufficient to provide the required experience for 36 student midwives from Kings
College Hospital and South Western London Hospital Group during the year.
The 24 hour supervision of the service shared with the Boroughs of Southwark
and Wandsworth through the Lambeth Emergency Control Service continues to
work satisfactorily.