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15
THE TENTH ANNUAL REPORT
on the
WILLESDEN MATERNITY HOSPITAL.
Report on the work from 1st January, 1940, to 31st December, 1940.
By ARNOLD WALKER, M.A., M.B., B.Ch., F.R.C.S., F.R.C.O.G.
Owing to the marked fall in the number of cases admitted during the first few months of the
war, the number of cases booked for admission was increased and in spite of evacuation when air
attacks started, the number of cases which has passed through the hospital during 1940 is a record.
The total is 1,177 compared with 913 in 1939. The distribution of cases throughout the year has been
irregular and, as might be expected, many patients cancelled their bookings and a number who were
booked disappeared. As stated in the last report, the irregularity of the admissions has not resulted
in overcrowding of the lying-in wards because patients were sent home as early as necessary to the
care of the municipal midwives. Normally, patients remain in hospital for fourteen days after the
birth of the baby, but normal cases have been sent home by ambulance as early as the tenth day.
This procedure has worked satisfactorily although it has imposed additional work upon both the
hospital and the domicilary midwives.
One maternal death occurred during the year from puerperal mania.
One interesting feature of 1940 has been the delivery of no less than four women of triplets.
Triplets occur once in about six thousand births, so the incidence has been twenty times the normal.
Unfortunately only four babies survived: one mother had three babies, all of which are doing well;
one mother had three premature babies, one of which survived; and in the other two cases all the babies
failed to survive on account of prematurity. One was classed as a miscarriage and the other as a
premature birth.
Statistical details of the 1,177 Cases dealt with during 1940.
Cases completed 1,177
A. Booked at the Health Centres 1,155
Discharged well 1,141
Delivered elsewhere 12
Transferred 1
Died 1
B. Admitted as Emergencies 22
Discharged well 22
Of the 1,155 booked cases, 631 were primiparae and 524 were
multipara.
Of the 22 emergency cases, 7 were primiparae and 15 were
multiparae.
Presentations—
Occipito Anterior 970
Occipito Posterior 113
Normal Breech 38
Complicated Breech 5
Twins 16
Triplets 3
Face 2
Shoulder 2
Miscarriages (including one case of triplets) 12