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CARE OF MOTHERS AND YOUNG CHILDREN
(Section 22)
Notification of Births

Maternity Services
During 1960 the report of the Cranbrook Committee on the
Maternity Services of the country continued to influence those administering
maternity care. Many of its recommendations have not yet
been implemented and there is cause for disappointment in the rate
of improvement in the services. The report recommended that
sufficient hospital maternity beds should be provided for a national
average of 70% of all births to take place in hospital. In this
Area we have 80% institutional confinements (hospital and nursing home)
and still our greatest problem is lack of hospital beds. It is an
unfortunate fact that hospitals appear so overwhelmed with numbers
applying for booking that on occasions they are even forced to refuse
admission to a mother whom they know to be a special medical risk
during delivery. In the case of applications for admission on social
grounds, e.g. where the house is considered unsuitable for a confinement,
unless the request is made in the very early months of
pregnancy it is common for the application to be refused. Our
domicilary midwives frequently have to conduct deliveries in small
singly-rented furnished rooms where bathrooms and kitchens are shared
by several other tenants and where other children of the family have
to be taken into a neighbour's room temporarily while the delivery
takes place. Sometimes it is possible to arrange for admission
to hospital through the Emergency Bed Service once labour has started
but this is unsatisfactory for all, since the hospital has no prior
knowledge of the mother and the mother is left in a state of indecision
until the very last moment.
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