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57
MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE.
Notification of Births.
1,742 notifications of live births were received during the year
(male 890, female 852).
334. notifications (including stillbirths) were received from
medical practitioners and parents, and 1,455 from midwives.
In addition, information was received of 209 births outside
this area.
The following list shows where most of these births occurred:—
Oldchurch Hospital 114
Queen Mary's Hospital, Stratford 10
East End Maternity Hospital 28
Plaistow Maternity Hospital 21
Upnev Hospital, Barking 5
London Hospital 4
Other Institutions 27
Stillbirths.
47 stillbirths were notified (22 male, 25 female), the corresponding
figures for registration being 33 and 33. The rate per
1,000 of total population registered was 0.72, the rate for England
and Wales being 0.67.
In 16 cases the infant was dead before the onset of labour.
In most of these, the cause was apparently maternal. Antepartum
haemorrhage accounted for 5, and toxaemias of pregnancy
another 5. 3 were apparently due to the mother having suffered
from an attack of influenza.
There were 11 cases in which labour was premature and the
child presumably alive shortly before labour; shock was the
presumed cause in 2 cases, a fall in another 2. Hyperemesis
was the cause in one and was the reason for induction of labour in
another. One infant was one of twins delivered at seven months.
In the other cases no cause could be found for the onset of labour.
In the remaining 20 cases, the child was apparently lost during
course of labour. In 2 cases in which labour occurred and the
infant was born before the arrival of the attendant, one child was
lost because of the cord round the neck, and another was born with
the membranes over the face. A difficult labour necessitating the
application of forceps accounted for 5 eases. The remaining
cases were all attended by midwives, and the labour was apparently
normal.