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the largest change occurred for those booked for home confinements,
where the numbers dropped from 124 to 78. As those
expecting their first baby are regarded as priority for hospital
confinement the latter figure relating to those booked for home
confinement would include only women expecting their second
or subsequent child. Details of the attendances in 1969 are given
in the following table:—

Midwifery
At December 1969 25 full-time and two part-time midwives
and one district nurse/midwife were in post, which is approximately
the same number as-at the end of 1968. The pattern of the
domiciliary midwifery service has shown considerable changes in
recent years, but these changes have been accentuated in 1969
by the increase in the number of patients admitted to hospital for
confinement only and also by the opening of the General Practitioner
Unit at Rush Green Hospital.
The percentage of hospital births again increased, the figure
for 1969 being 78.5, an increase of 3.1 per cent over the previous
year. The number of domiciliary confinements fell from 997 in
1968 to 850 in 1969, a decrease of 14.7 per cent. The number of
patients delivered in hospital and discharged before the 10th day
fell slightly from 2,359 to 2,315, but included in the figure of
2,315 were 1,516 patients discharged to the care of domiciliary
midwives within 48 hours of confinement. This number of 48 hour
discharges represents an increase of 50 per cent over the
equivalent figure for the previous year.
The Management Committee of the General Practitioner
Maternity Unit, Rush Green Hospital, decided that from October
1969, domiciliary midwives would be able to undertake deliveries
there. During the subsequent three months, domiciliary midwives
attended seven deliveries in this Unit and no doubt this figure
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