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9 MIDWIFERY
In accordance with Section 23 of the National Health
Service Act 1946, the Council provides a staff of 17
midwives to undertake home confinements and to care
for those mothers discharged early from hospital. The
arrangement whereby this work is undertaken by the
Council's own midwives in Southall and Ealing, and by
Queen Charlotte's Hospital midwives in Acton, continued
in 1971.
The Integrated Midwives Scheme with Perivale Maternity
Hospital started in 1970 was also continued, whereby
selected mothers found suitable for earlv discharge
were delivered in Perivale Maternity Hospital by
domiciliary midwives. This has been very successful and
both the mothers and the midwives have found this
service valuable. The growth of this service is shown by
the following figures:-
1970 - 27
1971 - 100
The Council is also the supervising authority under the
Midwives Act 1951 and as such is responsible for the
supervision of all midwives practising in the Borough,
including those working in hospital.
10 of the Council's midwives are approved teachers and
during the year 32 pupils from Perivale Maternity
Hospital and Hillingdon Hospital were trained. Those
from the former hospital were accommodated in the
Council's Pupil Midwives' Hostel, which has continued
to prove popular.
It will be noted that the domiciliary birth rate has
continued to fall. This follows the Peel Report, which
stressed that confinements should take place in hospital.
All midwives undertake planned early discharges, and
there were 536 of these during 1971.

The teaching programme for the pupil midwives has
continued to be of great value and has enabled them to
have an insight into all aspects of community care
provided by the Council. This extended Community Care
course is designed to partially take the place of the
reduced domiciliary deliveries, and trains them to give
advice on such matters as family planning.
The range of duties of the midwives has extended and
an evening class for expectant multiparae has been well
attended. The mothers are taught psycho-prophylaxis,
with mothercraft talks being given jointly with the health
visitors.
Overleaf is a photograph taken for the Department of
Health and Social Security, to be used nationally for
recruitment to the midwifery profession. The photograph
shows a midwife at work in the Borough.
ANTE-NATAL AND POST-NATAL SESSIONS:
Two types of ante-natal sessions are held at clinics:-
1. Midwives' Sessions where a mother is regularly seen
by the midwife who wiII attend her at confinement.
During this time the expectant mother may visit her
general practitioner or, if thought necessary, the
hospital ante-natal department.
2. Medical Officers' Sessions Most mothers today are
attended by their general practitioner or the hospital
ante-natal department. However, there are a number of
medical practitioners in the area who do not provide
ante-natal care and the Council's medical officers
supervise these cases.
The figures for 1971 were as follows:-
Mothers attending medical officers' sessions for their
ante-natal care367
Mothers attending midwives' sessions for their antenatal
care 181
Mothers attending ante-natal relaxation classes 855
Mothers attending post-natal sessions 177