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83
It is to he desired that facilities for post-natal
examination should be taken advantage of to a greater
extent than at present; all parturient women should be
examined approximately six weeks after their confinement
by a medical practitioner, whether their own family
doctor or one of the Assistant Medical Officers of the
Council is immaterial. It is well known in the profession
that conditions caused by parturition which were easily
remediable in the early stages are extant. Many middle
aged and elderly women go through the declining years
of their lives suffering pain and discomfort which would
have been prevented by appropriate treatment at the
opportune time; the opportune time, of course, being
the time following closely upon their confinement. The
Health Visitors have been requested to explain to all
newly confined mothers the advantages to be obtained
by undergoing post-natal examinations.
In all cases where a midwife sends her patient to an
ante-natal clinic and the Medical Officer there decides
that hospitalisation is necessary, the midwife receives
compensation from the Council. It is also a condition
of the payment of the midwife in necessitious cases that
the cases shall have attended an ante-natal clinic.
222 patients paid six or more visits, 180 attended
once only, 145 twice, 102 thrice, 86 four times and 80
five times. These figures exclude the attendances at the
ante-natal clinics of the hospitals to which the patients
were referred, but include those who had a miscarriage
or who left the district before confinement.
The sixth month of pregnancy was the commonest
time this year for the first attendance, 143 attending
at this stage; the fifth month with 136, and the seventh
with 112 were the next most common. 110 attended
first in their fourth month, 100 in the third, 56 in the
eighth and 48 in the second month.