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A conference was held between representatives of the
Boroughs of Finchley, Hornsey, and Wood Green to discuss
the necessity for further maternity accommodation easily
accessible to the three areas, and a resolution was sent to the
Middlesex County Council urging that body to provide such
accommodation for all classes of maternity cases. No further
action had been taken by the end of the year.
Maternal Mortality.
In 1935 there were 2 maternal deaths. One woman died
in the Wellhouse Hospital from puerperal eclampsia, and
one in Queen Charlotte's Hospital from sepsis and pernicious
anaemia.
The Maternal Mortality rate was 2.4 per 1,000 total
births as compared with 4.1 for England and Wales. There
is every reason to be gratified by this low rate.
I am convinced that much harm and unnecessary fear
have been caused in recent years by the constant references
in the press and elsewhere to the high maternal mortality
and the risks which a mother encounters at child-birth. These
alarming statements are seldom missed by expectant
mothers, and the psychological effect which they produce,
more especially in young women who are approaching the
most critical period of their whole lives, cannot be other
than prejudicial to their well-being, and the successful completion
of the natural process of child-birth. A local medical
practitioner recently told me of a nervous young mother
whom he attended at her confinement, and who had under
her pillow a newspaper cutting of an article on maternal
deaths. This form of propaganda, if it can be so termed,
in addition to its effect on the expectant mother, has succeeded
in frightening many healthy young married couples,
who are in every way fitted to bring up a family, from having
any children at all.
The Supply of Milk for Mothers and Children.
The supply of milk and other foods for children is
organised by the Voluntary Association, and during the
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