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MIDWIVES' ACT, 1936.
DOMICILIARY MIDWIVES' SERVICE.
The County Council are the Local Supervising Authority
under the Midwives' Acts.
Regarding Wembley, it may be pertinent to remark that
the Borough is now a large isolated County District bounded
by Harrow, Hendon, Willesden and Ealing, all of which Councils
are themselves the Local Supervising Authorities.
For the Borough of Wembley the County Council have
arranged that the Kingsbury District Nursing Association shall
serve the four wards of the Borough which formed previously
the Kingsbury Urban District, and that the Wembley District
Nursing Association shall serve the other eight Wards of the
Borough, for these purposes the Kingsbury Association
employing two midwives and the Wembley Association three
midwives.
The County Council's Scheme provides for a scale of
charges up to a maximum of £3 3s. 0d. (rebatement to be
according to the net capital income of the family after certain
deductions have been made—rent, rates, taxes, insurances and
hire purchase payments).
The County Medical Officer of Health has kindly given the
information that there are 19 midwives resident in Wembley engaged
in private practice, in addition to those midwives employed
by the Kingsbury and Wembley District Nursing Associations.
The number of Nursing Homes in the Borough is 7,
providing in all 38 beds, 29 of which are maternity beds.
MATERNAL MORTALITY.
Ministry of Health Circular 1622.
The Ministry of Health's report on an Investigation into
Maternal Mortality resulted from a detailed investigation in
certain areas—45 in which the maternal mortality rate over a
period of years had been in excess of the average, and 24 where
the rate had been below normal.
The great fall in the infant mortality rate has been rather
in contrast to the number of deaths still taking place during
the first four weeks of life. These neo-natal deaths result
from ante-natal influences, congenital weaknesses and conditions
after birth, for example, injury. It would seem, therefore,
that the problems of maternal and early infant mortality are,
in certain respects, inseparably interlocked, measures to reduce
maternal mortality being also likely to effect a reduction in
the death rate of infants in the first week or two of life.
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