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As mentioned earlier in the report, there is a greatly increasing tendency
for women from other districts to come into Westminster institutions for
their confinements. The hospital beds available are as follows:—Charing
Cross, 15; St. George's, 11; Westminster, 4; St. Stephens, 28. Five
hundred women from other districts were confined in Westminster and 428
women belonging to the City were delivered in the hospitals mentioned—
the number in St. Stephens alone being 209. The number of confinements
taking place in the latter hospital are increasing year by year (122 in 1925),
which sufficiently indicates the excellence of the organisation of this
particular department of the hospital.
The number of children born to Westminster parents in institutions
outside the City numbered 571.
The following table shows the number of confinements in the hospitals
mentioned:—
Table VII.
Charing Cross Hospital: 250, of which 139 were Westminster cases.
St. George's Hospital: 234, of which 104 were Westminster cases.
Westminster Hospital: 144, of which 76 were Westminster cases.
St. Stephen's Hospital: 209. Sheffield St. Hospital: 36.
Infancy and Early Childhood.—At the centres in the City weekly
clinics are held for the purpose of giving medical advice.
The following figures give an approximate number of the births in
the four areas divided for the purposes of maternity and child welfare.
Owing to the readjustments of the boundary line between the areas served
by the centres at Page Street and Bessborough Street, respectively, which
took place during the last quarter of 1926, the numbers for each of those
districts cannot be taken as an accurate allocation:—
1, Pimlico Road. 15, Bessborough St. 30, Page St. 9, Frith St.
499 365 348 394
The health visitors attached to those centres visit the homes for
the purpose of supplementing the instructions of the medical officers,
and of advising as to how those instructions should be carried out. Home
visiting is of prime importance in maternity and child welfare, and its
place cannot be taken by teaching groups of mothers at the centre. In
the home the visitor, by seeing the actual conditions, can appreciate any
difficulties with which the mother may be contending, and much can be
cleared up in the course of a quiet talk. Visits of inquiry are necessary
in cases of ophthalmia, measles, and other infectious diseases. The
following table shows the number of visits paid in connection with the
four centres:—