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Under the provisions of the Act, it is the duty of the Local
Supervising Authority " to secure, whether by making arrangements
with Welfare Councils or voluntary organisations, for the employment
by those councils or organisations of certified midwives as wholetime
servants, or by itself employing such midwives, that the
number of certified midwives so employed who are available in its
area for attendance on women in their own homes as midwives, or as
maternity nurses during child-birth and from time to time thereafter
during a period not less than the lying-in period, is adequate for the
needs of the area."
The London County Council has appointed six whole time
midwives for Area A, and in addition the following hospitals and
nursing associations, by arrangement with the London County
Council, employ midwives to undertake the work in this district:—
London Hospital
Royal Free Hospital
East End Maternity Hospital, Stepney
Jewish Maternity Hospital, Stepney
Mothers' Hospital (Salvation Army), Hackney
East London Nursing Society
Hackney District Nursing Association
Nursing Sisters of St. John the Divine, Poplar.
Under the terms of the scheme every woman who so desires may
apply for the services of a London County Council certified midwife,
and if a doctor has been engaged for the confinement their application
may be made for the services of a midwife to act as maternity
nurse. In this connection attention is drawn to that section of the
Act in relation to the prohibition of unqualified persons acting as
maternity nurses for gain. After the adoption of the Act in the area
concerned no person being a woman neither certified under the
principal Act nor registered in the general part of the register of
nurses kept under the Nurse's Registration Act, 1919, nor a male
person, may receive any remuneration for attending in that area as a
nurse on a woman in child-birth or during a period immediately
following child-birth.
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