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The Health of Barking
should arise, and for which we are not prepared and equipped. I know the
difficulty of doing wayside repairs and I know how easy it is to do the same job
when you have got all the necessary tackle and equipment."
Mary's mother was definitely opposed to it—she had never been to hospital
for a confinement, and she couldn't see why Mary should have her baby born in
hospital. Mary was in a quandary. Undoubtedly, the questionis a difficult one. John
was quite right when he said all about
the wonderful equipment and the expert
supervision, but it is also true that
you cannot get a number of women
together in a delicate state of health
without running some risk. If one of
these women catches a cold it is likely
the others will catch it also, and the
same is true with regard to infections
which are peculiar to childbirth.
There can be no doubt whatsoever that when a person is advised, on mcdical
grounds, to have the baby born in hospital, it is folly not to accept this advice.
Where the social conditions are not in all respects satisfactory, this means that
there are risks at home which more than outweigh the risk of women being
congregated together at such a time. There is a lot to be said for women having
their first baby in hospital, because it is these first babies which provide so many
of the incidents which have to be passed in childbirth. Incidentally, for the same
reason there is much to be said for the women who are having their fifth or sixth
baby going into hospital. But this leaves a gap between the first and the fifth baby,
where the question is quite an open one. In practice, however, it isn't a very
pressing problem because we look upon medical necessity, first babies, social
emergencies and fifth babies as priority classes and by the time these priority
classes have been accommodated, there are few beds left for other expectant mothers.
Ante-Natal Service.
Elsewhere I talked particularly to Mary about the way in which our ante-natal
services are designed to do what we may to deal with the special problem of
prematurity. Of course, these services are designed to cater for a much wider field
than prematurity, although it is a very important aspect of our work.
I do not wish to go into what I have discussed in earlier Reports, but I am happy
to be able to say that there are advances in ante-natai work quite comparable
with those advances which are taking place in other Departments. We now know
more fully than we have known before that a properly balanced diet is very essential
to every pregnancy—not only a properly balanced diet, such as flesh, fats, and
starchy materials are concerned, but also a properly proportioned diet, so far as

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