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51
Maternity and Child Welfare.
garden. The former coach-house, which adjoins the main building,
is used as a laundry on the ground floor, with resident quarters
for the Gardener Attendant on the upper floor.
Accommodation.—The accommodation in the Home consists
of 25 beds for lying-in women, and these are arranged in nine
wards—the number of beds per ward varying from one to five.
One single-bedded ward is situated as far as possible from the
others, and is used as an isolation ward. In addition to the nine
wards there is a receiving room where the women are received
on admission, an office, two labour wards where the confinements
take place, a nursery, and accommodation for the nursing and
domestic staff.
Staff.—The Nursing Staff consists of a Matron, who is in
charge of the Home, two Sisters, three Staff Nurses and seven
Probationers. The Matron, Sisters and Staff Nurses are trained
midwives.
The Domestic Staff consists of a Home Sister, a Cook and
six Maids.
All the Nursing and Domestic Staff are at present accommodated
in the Home, and the Council supplies them with uniform.
Probationers.-—The Probationers, who remain at the Home
for a year, act as Pupil Midwives, and undergo training for the
Central Midwives Board Examination, the Home being recognised
by the Board for this purpose.
The instruction comprises attendance at confinements both
in the Maternity Home and at the patients' homes, instruction
from the Matron and the qualified Staff, attendance at a course
of lectures at the Clapham Maternity Hospital for a period of
three months and attendance at the Balham and Streatham Antenatal
Centres.
To enable the pupil midwives to attend confinements at
patient's homes, arrangements have been made with a registered
midwife in Fulham who takes pupils for each Probationer to
reside with her for one month's outdoor training, and during
this month one of the midwife's pupils resides in the Home and
receives instruction in Institutional work.
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