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vii.
Throughout 1946 a very heavy load was placed upon the
maternity scheme. The number of cases delivered in Mayday
Hospital increased from 1,075 in 1945 to 1,321 in 1946, and at
St. Mary's Hospital the increase was from 609 to 669. The
municipal midwives delivered 1,610 cases as compared with 1,015
in 1945. A table has been included in the relevant section of
the report to show, in detail, the work done by the municipal
midwives, who throughout the year shouldered so successfully
a burden much greater than they had ever been called upon to
do previously.
The Obstetric Service of the Council delivered 3,600 mothers
out of a total of 4,806 births allocated to Croydon. In spite
of this heavy presssure there were only three maternal deaths,
and the Infant deaths before the end of the first week of life fell
from 15/1,000 live births to 12/1,000.
Once again attention must be directed to the inadequacy of
the Lodge Road premises. With the substantial increase in
the birth rate and the greater readiness of expectant mothers
to go to Ante-natal Clinics; the sessions have been uncomfortably
crowded and mothers have been forced to wait longer than
would have been required if more doctors could have been
accommodated.
Also the number of maternity beds, even with the reopening
of the Monteagle annexe (20 beds) proved insufficient to
provide institutional care for all those who asked for it. In
consequence admissions had to be restricted to medically abnormal
cases or those whose housing conditions were quite impossible
for a confinement.
The Infantile mortality rate was 10 per 1,000 births lower
than for 1945 and reached a new low record. Still-births also
showed a small decrease from 27.2 per 1,000 births to 26.5.
Attendances at the Infant Welfare Centres showed a substantial
increase and several Centres had to duplicate their
sessions in order to cope with the numbers. As a whole the
Centres are overcrowded, and if the present tendency of attendances
continues more Centres will have to be established. The
following summary of the relevant figures shows clearly the heavy
use made of these Centres: —
1946 1945
New cases attending for the first
time 4,558 3,930
Total attendances 77,941 66,446
Doctors' Consultations 33,407 21,724
Average attendance per session 68.7 62.2