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126
THE OBSTETRIC SERVICE.
The obstetric service was fully described in the Annual
Report for 1933.
The chief object of the service is to avoid abnormality in
pregnancy and child-birth, and to prevent consequent death or
ill-health of mother and child. It is the quality of the Ante-Natal
supervision which determines to what extent certain abnormalities
will be prevented, and for this reason the results of In-patient
treatment are always classified into the two groups—Booked cases
cared for at the Ante-Natal Clinics and Emergency cases admitted
to the Council's beds without previous supervision in the AnteNatal
Clinics.
Some of the Mayday Hospital Booked cases are sent to the
Ante-Natal Clinics by doctors and midwives because of abnormalities
and complications. Many of the Emergency cases are
seriously ill when they are received into hospital. The extent to
which the Council provides for the serious cases may be judged
by the fact that in 1933 all the 12 maternal deaths in Croydon
occurred in the Council's beds and 9 of the 11 maternal deaths
in 1934.
Taking the Registrar-General's figures for maternal mortality
(deaths directly due to pregnancy) the rate for England and
Wales for 1934 is 4.41 per 1,000 births. In Croydon there has
been a slight fall from 3.70 per 1,000 in 1933 to 3.63 per 1,000 in
1934. In Booked cases treated by the Obstetric Service the rate
for 1934 was 2.96 per 1,000 births. The Staff are far from
satisfied with this, and their constant application to a system of
Ante-Natal supervision is intended to reduce the number of
deaths to the minimum. The co-operation of the expectant
mothers themselves is necessary for this.
Of the cases treated to a conclusion at the Post-Natal Clinic
during 1934, 92.8 per cent. were classified as " Health Unimpaired."
This signifies that anatomically and functionally their
condition was the same as before their pregnancies. The corresponding
figure for 1933 was 84.6 per cent.