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
London County Council 1956
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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CARE OF MOTHERS AND YOuNG CHILDREN
Administration
day to day administration of the services is the responsibility of the nine divisional
health committees and during the year members of the committees regularly visited
health establishments in their areas. The reports of the individual divisional medical
officers are given in the section which commences on page 131.
Maternity and child welfare centres
Details of changes in centres during the year will be found in the section on health
service premises, page 54.
Expectant and nursing mothers
Statistics relating to ante- and post-natal and educational sessions are given in the following tables :
| Year | Ante-natal | Post-natal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clinics at end of year (including ante-natal, post-natal, and combined) | Sessions per month | Attendances | Percentage of pregnant women attending at an ante-natal clinic | No. of women attending during year | ||
| First | Total | |||||
| 1952 | 118 | 906 | 21,959 | 145,088 | 41 | 4,501 |
| 1953 | 119 | 986 | 22,713 | 129,451 | 44 | 4,062 |
| 1954 | 120 | 920 | 23,204 | 126,270 | 45 | 4,489 |
| 1955 | 118 | 846 | 22,231 | 116,042 | 43 | 4,258 |
| 1956 | 116 | 805 | 23,379 | 122,662 | 44 | 4,543 |
Of those who received ante-natal care 18 per cent. attended the centres for post-natal
examinations in 1956. Most mothers who have intermediate ante-natal care at the
Council's centres, but who have booked a hospital bed for the confinement, return to
the hospital for post-natal examination. Many general practitioners called in to give
medical aid to mothers confined at home, complete their attendance by giving the postnatal
examination. These factors account in part for the low attendance rate at post-natal
clinics, which has remained at the same level since 1953. It is recognised that some
multiparae are apathetic or find it difficult to attend and in an attempt to raise the level
attendances, many post-natal and ante-natal sessions are combined. Domiciliary midwives
in the Council's service are now responsible for seeing that the mothers attend for
post-natal examination either by their doctor or at the centre. Follow-up visits are paid
by domiciliary midwives to mothers who fail to attend.
Tests
Expectant mothers are offered a full range of blood tests at the clinics, and chest
X-ray through the mass X-ray service. Facilities for all clinical tests are available for
doctors giving maternity medical services whether the mother is given ante-natal care at
the centre by the midwife or not.
Blood is taken for Wasserman and Kahn reactions, and Rhesus state. Tests are made
for antibodies at about the 32nd week of pregnancy, specimens being sent to the hospital
laboratories or to the Blood Transfusion Service. Every mother is given a card showing
her blood test results, Rhesus state and blood grouping. Haemoglobin levels are estimated
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