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37
Total First Attendances 716
„ Re-Attendances 3,805
„ Attendances 4,521*
„ Sessions 259
* In addition there were 53 Post-Natal, and 101 Gynæcological Attendances.
It is by no means unsatisfactory that out of about 1,200 births, somewhat over
700 women attended at your Ante-Natal centres, but in the absence of evidence
that the remaining 500 cases were under adequate supervision, the figure of 716
first attendances must be regarded as one on which to improve.
It is, however, satisfying to note that a large number of the women who avail
themselves of the facilities offered at ante-natal clinics are approaching their first
confinement, and that these women on the whole attend regularly.
Details of the milk and meals supplied to expectant mothers are given on
pages 45—47.

Death of the baby before or during labour took place in just over one-quarter
of the cases, when apparently there was no difficulty in the labour.
The babies born to mothers suffering from toxaemia are usually weaker and
less able to withstand the stress of labour than those whose mothers are in good
health. Some of these toxæmic infants die in the womb before labour starts.
Ante-partum hæmorrhage in some cases is also attributable to maternal toxaemia.
Careful and frequent ante-natal supervision, with treatment where necessary,
will enable the cases of still-birth due to toxaemia and difficult labour to be minimised,
and it is noteworthy that many of the cases instanced in the table above had not
received regular ante-natal supervision.
(c) Midwifery.—The Council became the Local Supervising Authority for
Midwives as from the 1st April, 1935.