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78
Towards this expenditure the mother receives
a home confinement grant of £5
The Reading Borough Council gave their estimate
(1956) for Home Help at £6.6s 7d In Ealing
the average Home Help charge made to mothers in
assessed cases for the financial year ending 31st
March, 1959, was £4 per case This estimate concerns
those whose income is so low that they know
they will get the Home Help at a diminished rate
Those who are asked to pay the full rate of 4s
per hour either make other arrangements, or have
a Home Help for a few days only.
The Cranbrook Committee state that "the home
confinement grant, at present £5, was we thought
unlikely to cover the cost of food (which in hospital
was provided free), minor equipment and the
additional home help that the mother confined at
home was likely to require We consider that with
the changing value of money the amount of the
home confinement grant should periodically be
reviewed,"
In 1946, the Population Investigation Committee
and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
combined to make an inquiry into the
social and economic factors of childbearing All
the women delivered in a single week were interviewed,
and the Borough of Ealing was invited to
participate in this inquiry In urban areas
throughout the country, 46 per cent of confinements
took place in institutions, but, in 1948,
78 per cent of Ealing mothers were confined in
institutions.
In the Cranbrook Report some witnesses suggested
that every woman who wishes to have her
baby in hospital should be allowed to do so, other
witnesses thought that every woman should be
actively encouraged to have her baby in hospital,
while a third source stressed that there were
important physical and psychological advantages
in the normal confinement taking place at home.
The Cranbrook Committee recommended that sufficient
maternity beds should be provided for a
national average of 70 per cent of all confinements
to take place in hospital In Ealing 73 per
cent. of the total births in 1958 were in hospital.
If a hospital bed had been provided for every
patient who had asked for one, 76 per cent of
those interviewed would have been confined in
hospital
SUMMARY
(1) Eight hundred and eighty-nine women who
had been confined in 1958 were interviewed and a
questionnaire completed by the health visitors
607 chose to have a hospital confinement, although
73 had to have a home confinement; 68 had a hospital
confinement, but not by choice; leaving 214
confined at home by choice
(2) All 10 of the primigravidae, and 38 out
of 63 of the multigravidae who had been obliged
to have their confinements at home, decided, on
retrospect, that they really preferred to do so.
Financial implications may well have been the
deciding factor in their first choice.