London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
St Pancras 1920
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for St. Pancras, Metropolitan Borough]
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22
Home Helps.—The St. Pancras Home Helps Committee provides domestic assistance
for families when the mother is laid aside through sickness or child-birth. In 1920 the
Council made the Committee a subsidy at the rate of £150 per annum in respect of maternity
cases.
58 cases were assisted in 1920, as follows:—
Maternity 38
Influenza 1
Consumption 1
Care of children during absence of mothers 2
Old age infirmity 5
Other sickness 11
Three home helps were employed during most of the year.
Home Nursing.—The work of the four local district nursing associations in this
connection (see page 75) includes the nursing of mothers and children. The home nursing of
cases of measles, whooping cough, and ophthalmia neonatorum by the nursing associations for
the Mayoress' Nursing Fund is referred to on pages 26 and 27.
The Maternity Nursing Association undertakes "monthly nursing" as well as supplying
midwives.
Midwifery Work.
The notifications of births in St. Pancras are classified below (in wards and registration sub-districts) according to the manner in which the mothers were attended in their confinements:—
| Births. | W. | S. | E. | N. | Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 2 | ||
| Attended in their own homes by- | |||||||||
| Private Doctors | 214 | 121 | 35 | 64 | 251 | 27 | 359 | 158 | 1229 |
| Private Midwives | 225 | 27 | 17 | 62 | 152 | 7 | 320 | 371 | 1181 |
| Doctors from the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital | 33 | 16 | 3 | 32 | 61 | 15 | 17 | 47 | 224 |
| Medical Students from— | |||||||||
| University College Hospital | 133 | 326 | 3 | 13 | 221 | 463 | 6 | 30 | 1195 |
| Royal Free Hospital | 1 | — | 2 | 64 | 3 | — | — | — | 70 |
| „ St. Bartholomew's Hospital | — | — | — | 3 | — | — | — | — | 3 |
| Midwives from— | |||||||||
| Middlesex Hospital | — | 39 | 61 | 3 | — | 2 | — | — | 105 |
| „ University College Hospital | 7 | 16 | 32 | 162 | 8 | 22 | — | 3 | 250 |
| „ Maternity Nursing Association, Myddleton Square | — | 1 | — | 74 | — | — | — | — | 75 |
| „ Maternity Nursing Association, Oakley Square Branch | 44 | 84 | 14 | 4 | 116 | 57 | 24 | 17 | 360 |
| Attended in Institutions— | |||||||||
| University College Hospital | — | — | 200 | — | — | — | — | — | 200 |
| Royal Free Hospital | — | — | — | 213 | — | — | — | — | 213 |
| Royal Free Hospital (Marlborough Maternity Section) | — | — | 573 | — | — | — | — | — | 573 |
| Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital | — | — | — | — | — | 59 | — | — | 59 |
| Lying-in Ward of St. Pancras House | — | — | — | — | — | 220 | 1 | — | 221 |