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married and not notifying her condition until the day before labour
took place.
Arrangements have been maintained whereby mothers booked
for Upney Hospital attend their local clinics to receive ante-natal
care, thus ensuring continued supervision by the health visitors and
other local authority staff to whom she will look for advice after she
has been discharged from hospital. The hospital medical officers, who
will have the responsibility for caring for the mothers during labour,
attend the clinics in order to see the expectant mothers later in pregnancy
thus saving the mother unnecessary visits to hospital. The system
whereby all ante-natal records are kept in the Upney Hospital overnight
ensures that these records will be available if a mother goes into
labour during the night, and is of especial benefit if she has to be
admitted in an emergency.
Confinements. In 1927 less than a quarter of the deliveries took
place in hospital. Figure 6 illustrates how during the early years of
the developing Becontree Estate the total number of births steadily
rose without much alteration in the proportion of hospital and
domiciliary confinements. From 1933 onwards, however, there has
been a steady upward trend in the proportion of babies born in hospital
—curbed only temporarily in 1946 and 1947 by the high birth rates
in those years. This trend was made possible by the provision of the
Upney Pavilion, later by the wartime evacuation arrangements and
finally by the opening of two further wards for maternity cases. It
has probably been re-enforced by the introduction of the National
Health Service which made it much cheaper for the mother to have a
baby in hospital, where domestic help, food and laundry are provided
free of charge. The introduction during the year of the new home
confinement grant of £3 goes some way to meet this difficulty, but
financially the scales are still weighted far too heavily in favour of the
mother who goes into hospital. Either the mother who remains at
home should have all ancillary services free of charge, or the mother
going into hospital should pay towards her keep.
There is no doubt that at one time there were insufficient beds lor
maternity cases, but today with 80% of Barking mothers being confined
in hospital, one wonders whether the pendulum has swung too farIt
is essential to provide hospital beds for those cases where any difficulty
may be expected. It is equally necessary to provide for those
mothers who do not have adequate accommodation for a home
confinement. It is questionable, however, whether beds should be
provided for those who do not fall into either of these categories whilst
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