View report page

136
Provision of dinners (at some Centres), milk, and also of dental treatment for expectant
and nursing mothers is another facility. For particulars of this scheme see pages 112-114
and 129-132.
Care at confinement.
Midwives.
In the Metropolis, the supervising authority for midwives is the London County
Council. According to figures supplied by that authority in January, 1938, the number of
midwives who, in 1937, had notified their intention to practise in St. Pancras was 104. 42 of
this number are engaged in private practice, the remainder are on the staff of various
hospitals and institutions in the Borough.
Private midwives are not subsidised by the Borough Council, but a subsidy is paid
for each approved necessitous case attended in the patient's home by midwives on the staff of
certain hospitals and by midwives employed by the Maternity Nursing Association.
The subsidy is not paid in cases where "Maternity benefit" is payable under the
National Health Insurance Act.
Midwifery.
There is a large number of institutions, situated either within or near the Borough,
which provide midwifery attendance, either at the patient's home or by admission as
in-patients. There is at present no arrangement under which midwives acting in the capacity
of maternity nurses attend cases with students at the patients' homes.
A subsidy is paid by the Borough Council to certain hospitals in connection with the
admission of necessitous cases to their maternity wards and also in connection with certain
cases attended at home by midwives on the staffs of various hospitals and institutions.

The cases admitted as in-patients as recorded in the above table represented 64 9 per
cent, of the total number of St. Pancras births. As compared with the previous year, there
was a slight increase in the number of those admitted as in-patients,