View report page

MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE
This service is concerned with the care of the mother throughout
her pregnancy and confinement and the supervision of nursing
mothers and of children up to the age of five years.
The provision made for this work thus falls into three sections:
1. Care of the expectant mother.
2. Arrangements for the confinement and lying-in period.
3. Supervision of mothers and infants.
1. Care of the Expectant Mother.
(a) Observation of the progress of pregnancy, detection of abnormalities,
and discovery and correction of any other physical defects which
may exert a harmful effect on the process of gestation.
This work is carried out by the routine attention of the medical
practitioner or midwife who has been engaged for the confinement.
In cases where a midwife only has been engaged it is necessary that
the expectant mother should be examined at least twice during
pregnancy by a medical practitioner. It is for this purpose that
Ante-natal Clinics are established.
The Ante-natal Clinics are conducted by a panel of medical
practitioners practising in the Borough. Expectant mothers are
invited to select from the names on the panel the practitioner whom
they would wish to attend them in the event of the services of a
doctor being needed at the confinement. Appointments for the
necessary examinations at the Clinics by the doctor selected are then
made by the Public Health Department. Ante-natal examinations
of those mothers who have arranged to have their confinements in
Institutions outside the Borough are carried out by the Assistant
Medical Officer of Health.
13