View report page

Maternity and Child Welfare. 53
Arrangements for the care of the mother.
1. The supervision of midwives.—Although the
Borough Council has to deal with Maternity and Child
Welfare, the supervision of the midwives, whose co-operation
and assistance is to be encouraged in any scheme,
comes within the province of the County Council. By
the Midwives Act of 1902 the County Council could
delegate their powers of supervision to the local Council
and the local Council were hopeful of obtaining this
delegation, but the Midwives Act of 1918 took away
those powers and made it impossible to make any
delegation. Although it was felt that if the midwives
were controlled locally greater co-operation could be
secured in making the scheme of Maternity and Child
Welfare a success, yet we had to submit to a continuance
of the old system and had to devise the means for securing
the interest of the midwives in the district. These
means consisted in a series of lectures to midwives at
the Welfare Centre given by Dr. Bell on ante-natal and
neo-natal hygiene and by Dr. Grace Banham on the
care of infants and children, both lecturers dealing
with the question of how the midwives can assist in any
scheme of Maternity and Child Welfare and devoting
attention particularly to the scheme in operation in
Ealing. Through the assistance of the County Medical
Officer the attendance of midwives was encouraged.
The result of the lectures was that the Centre was placed
in a new light as far as the midwives were concerned,
the correct impression being given that the work and
especially the ante-natal portion of it would not injure
the position of the midwives, but would support it.
In Ealing the great majority of births are attended by
a doctor with or without a registered midwife in attendance.