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 1963
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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pre-arranged schemes with certain maternity hospitals (see page 46). The number of home
confinements booked by general practitioners for the provision of maternity medical
services continues to increase steadily; in only 375 cases, which included emergencies
delivered by domiciliary midwives, had a doctor not been booked.
Table (iii)—
| Age | Total confinements | Parity | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 and over | Not known | |||
| Under 20 | No. | 497 | 172 | 249 | 62 | 14 | - | - | - |
| % | 1.5 | 2.2 | 0.5 | 0.1 | - | - | - | ||
| 20.29 | No. | 7,602 | 616 | 3,261 | 2,223 | 1,094 | 272 | 134 | 2 |
| % | 5.4 | 28.7 | 19.7 | 9.6 | 2.4 | 1.2 | 0.0 | ||
| 30.39 | No. | 3,107 | 34 | 687 | 929 | 782 | 364 | 300 | 11 |
| % | 0.3 | 6.0 | 8.2 | 6.9 | 3.2 | 2.6 | 0.1 | ||
| 40 and over | No. | 161 | 2 | 8 | 35 | 48 | 26 | 37 | 5 |
| % | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.1 | ||
| Not known.. | No. | 2 | - | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | - |
| % | - | 00 | 00 | - | - | - | - | ||
| Total | No. | 11,369 | 824 | 4,206 | 3,250 | 1,938 | 662 | 471 | 18 |
| % | 7.2 | 37.0 | 28.7 | 17.0 | 5.8 | 4.1 | 0.2 | ||
Percentages are of the total confinements.
On grounds of parity, 1,597 (17.1 per cent.) of mothers delivered by domiciliary midwifery
services should have been delivered in hospital, but this was not possible either because
beds were not available at the time the mother came for her ante.natal care or because the
patient herself refused hospital booking.
The peri.natal mortality rate for the domiciliary midwifery service was 8.8 per thousand
total births. The stillbirth rate in the domiciliary midwifery service was 5-7 per thousand
total births, compared with the domiciliary rate of 7-7 for England and Wales (1962).
Table (iv)—
| 1959 | 1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | 555 | 517 | 525 | 474 | 438 |
| Per cent. of live births | 5.1 | 4.7 | 4.7 | 4.0 | 3.9 |