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24
DISTRICT CASES.
Cases who do not wish to enter the Maternity Home for confinement
and cannot afford the services of a private doctor, can have
the attendance of a County Midwife who may refer her patient to
the Clinic under the Ante-Natal Scheme.
Forty-seven patients were referred to the Clinic by Midwives
during 1938.
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 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 Thursday mornings
at the Town Hall Clinic and on alternate Tuesday afternoons at the
Hawes Down Clinic. In addition, Dr. Thomson holds Clinics on
alternate Fridays at the Town Hall Clinic and Hawes Down Clinic.
During 1938, 326 expectant mothers (Beckenham 235, Penge 91)
attended the Maternity Home Clinic.
The number of Sessions held was 156, and the attendances
numbered 1,830, a weekly average of 33.
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
5,302 births in the Home and 1,250 on the District, giving a total of
6,552 births. There have been in all, 10 maternal deaths, giving a
maternal mortality rate of 1.52 per 1,000 births, compared with
the rate over the same period of approximately 4.00 per 1,000
births for England and Wales as a whole.