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Research
Participation by medical staff at certain ante-natal clinics in the research project
sponsored by Dr. A. G. Mezey, Consultant Psychiatrist, North Middlesex Hospital,
with the object of finding out if the mental breakdown which occasionally occurs
after childbirth could be anticipated during pregnancy with a view to preventive
treatment, continued throughout the year. The research was completed by the end
of the year, but the results have not yet been fully evaluated.
Medical staff also continued to take part in the survey of children with spina
bifida, which was initiated by the Research and Intelligence Unit of the Greater
London Council. Modern treatment of this congenital abnormality has resulted
in many children surviving with varying degrees of handicap and the project is
intended to discover more about the numbers of such children and about the
severity of their handicap, in order that plans can be made for their future needs.
During the year the Health Department agreed to co-operate in a study of the
mothers of children born with anencephalus or spina bifida cystica which was being
made by the Clinical Genetics Research Unit of the Medical Research Council.
The objects of this survey were to estimate the recurrence risk of a second child
with major neural tube malformation and to build up a panel of mothers of such
children who would be willing to give a blood sample early in their next pregnancy.
The study was still in progress at the end of the year.
Dr. Crawford, Principal Medical Officer for Maternity and Child Health,
inaugurated a survey into the effect on the incidence of breast feeding of the growing
practice of discharging patients home from hospital within forty-eight hours of
hospital confinement under a planned early discharge scheme.
Comparisons were made of the percentages of children breast fed at various
ages in the groups of children born at home, born in hospital with a normal period
of hospitalisation, and born in hospital under the planned early discharge scheme.
The preliminary findings appeared to show a statistically significant high percentage
of breast fed children at ten days of age in the hospital group and also
amongst first babies, wherever born. The fact that most first babies are born in
hospital must be taken into consideration in assessing the significance of this finding.
There was also a statistically significant high percentage of breast fed babies in
social classes I and II at ten days of age, six weeks and three months, most noticeable
in the planned early discharge group.
Population Screening for Carcinoma of the Cervix of the Uterus
This service, which commenced in 1966 for women between the ages of 35 and
60 years, was continued during 1968 at the special sessions held at three suitably
situated clinics, and at ante-natal sessions. It is emphasised that this test is for
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