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14
HOME HELPS:
The scheme for the provision of Home Helps, which has
been operating successfully for a number of years, has been
of paramount importance in the Domiciliary Midwifery Service
enabling the mother to have complete rest over the period
of the confinement. Normally, the Home Help is allocated
for a period of fourteen days, which is subject to extension if
necessary. Twenty Home Helps were employed during last
year, sixteen full-time and four on a part-time basis, and
assistance was given to 357 mothers. It will be appreciated
that without this help many of these mothers would inevitably
have had to seek hospital provision for their confinements
with a consequent aggravation of the present hospital situation.
No service operated by this Department earns so many
expressions of appreciation as does the Home Help scheme.
HOSPITAL CONFINEMENTS:
The provision for hospital confinement is a duty of the
hospital Authority, namely, the Middlesex County Council,
and for this area provision is made at Redhill County Hospital
and the Annexe at Bushey. All hospitals in the County
area dealing with midwifery have been working under great
pressure and accordingly admission could only be arranged
for first confinements, for medical reasons and in cases in
which the housing conditions were entirely unsuitable. The
hospital provision was supplemented by the Borough Council
by arrangements being made with Queen Charlotte's and
Ashridge Emergency Medical Service Hospital. A scheme is
also in operation, under the segis of the London County Council,
by which mothers can be evacuated to Hostels which had
been established during the war but which have been continued
to relieve the general shortage of maternity beds. The
following Table shows the comparative figures for domiciliary,
hospital and nursing home confinements:—