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MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE.
(1) Midwifery and Maternity Services.
These services have been reviewed again especially
in the light of Circular 1622 (7th May, 1937), on Maternal
Mortality.
(a) Ante-natal Care. The figure 573 denotes that
43.4 per cent of expectant mothers attended the Corporation's
ante-natal clinics and, therefore, received antenatal
medical care, but it is known that 315 other
expectant mothers received similar care at clinics
attached to London Maternity Hospitals to which they
were admitted for their confinment giving a total percentage
of 65.1 known to receive ante-natal medical
care. This percentage should be 100, and it is hoped
that with the operation of the new Midwives Act, that
an increase towards 100 per cent will be noticed in future
years.
(b) Co-operation with Ceneral Practitioners. With
the opening of the new Maternity Home all the practitioners
of the area may attend their own cases in the
Home, and any patient there may call in her own doctor.
To this extent the private practitioners are part of the
maternity service though they are not subsidised by the
Council. Every medical practitioner is entitled by law
to practice midwifery, and under existing conditions the
majority of the cases he is called to see are those which
have become to a greater or lesser degree, abnormal. He
is, then,expected to do difficult midwifery under bad conditions,
which may obtain in a private house, and surely
he should therefore be given opportunities of doing such
work in the best conditions which can obtain in a Maternity
Home, if he is to keep up his knowledge in this
respect.
The question of a panel of General Practitioners to
do midwifery work has received attention in recent times,
but unless a majority of doctors elect not to do midwifery,
the formation of any panel would be fraught with
many difficulties, not the least of which is the economic,
one.
It may be maintained that to carry this argument
to its logical conclusion, private practitioners should do
the ante-natal clinic work, but here I do not agree. The
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