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DISTRICT CASES.
Cases who do not wish to enter the Maternity Home for their
confinement and cannot afford the services of a private doctor, can
have the attendance of a Midwife, who, in these cases, works in
conjunction with the Welfare Centres and the Maternity Home.
The District Midwives attended 90 cases of this kind referred
to them through the Welfare Centres (Beckenham, 42 ; Penge, 48)
up to 1 /9 /37, when the County Scheme came into operation.
ANTE-NATAL WORK.
Ante-natal Clinics are held at the Home on Tuesdays, Wednesdays
and Thursdays. Every mother entering the Home under the
care of the Midwives, or engaging the services of the District Midwives
working in conjunction with the Home, attends these Clinics for
Ante-natal supervision by the Home Midwives.
Both Beckenham and Penge cases are dealt with, and further
Ante-natal care is given to Beckenham cases on Thursdays mornings
at the Town Hall Clinic. During 1937, 346 expectant mothers
(Beckenham, 252 ; Penge, 94) attended the Maternity Home Clinic.
The number of sessions held was 156, and the attendances
totalled 1,969, a weekly average of 37.
ADMINISTRATION AND COST.
The comparative return of the cost of maintaining Municipal
Maternity Homes in England shows that the cost per patient week
in the Beckenham and Penge Home compares favourably with
similar Homes throughout the country.
MATERNAL MORTALITY.
Since the Home was opened in August, 1920, there have been
4,969 births in the Home and 1,250 on the District, giving a total of
6,219 births. There have been, in all, 9 maternal deaths, giving a
maternal mortality rate of 1.44 per 1,000 births, compared with
the rate over the same period of approximately 4.0 per 1,000 births
for England and Wales as a whole.
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