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It may be stated here that eight midwives were appointed
and commenced their duties on the 1st May, 1937, the appointment
of the ninth midwife being deferred. pending experience of the
working of the scheme.
" REPORT ON THE MIDWIVES ACT, 1936.
Objects of the Act.
Circular 1569 of the Ministry of Health so succinctly summarises the
objects of the Act that it may be quoted :—
The principal object of the Act is to secure the organisation
throughout the country of a domiciliary service of salaried midwives
under the control of the local supervising authorities as an important
step in the improvement of the maternity services and in the campaign
for reducing maternal mortality. At the same time, the whole status
of the midwifery profession will be raised by providing adequate
salaries and secure prospects for those midwives who enter the new
service, and by compensating those who retire within a specified
period and so reducing the present overcrowding in the ranks of
the proiession.
The Act provides for the establishment by local supervising
authorities of a salaried midwives' service ; the payment by
those authorities of compensation to midwives who voluntarily
retire from practice and to those who are required to retire owing to
old age or infirmity ; the payment by the Exchequer of grants towards
the cost of the new service and towards the amounts expended in
compensation ; the prohibition of maternity nursing by unqualified
persons in any area by order of the Minister as soon as he is satisfied
that the new service in that area is adequate ; and the periodical
attendance at post-certificate courses of all practising midwives.
The extent to which the objects will be attained will depend on the
readiness with which the midwives who are only attending a small number
of cases in the year accept the opportunity of giving up practice, on the support
given by the medical practitioners and by the expectant mothers themselves
to the whole-time midwives to the exclusion of those independent midwives
who only attend a small number of cases and are not intent on taking up midwifery
as an earnest profession and lastly on the appreciation of the full
import of the new service by local supervising authorities and their recognition
of the urgent need for improving the status of the practising midwife.
By Section 1, sub-section (1), of the Midwives Act, it is the duty of
every local superivising authority to provide, either through voluntary
organisations or by itself, an adequate number of whole-time certified
midwives who shall be available to. attend on women in their own homes
as midwives or maternity nurses during childbirth and during the lying-in
period. The lying-in period has now been defined by the Central Midwives
Board to mean the time occupied by the labour and a period of not less than
14 days thereafter.
The local supervising authority has to submit its proposals to the
Minister of Health before the 30th January, 1937, and has to put them into
effect before the 30th July following.