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15
Maternity Hospital Provision.
284 were admitted through the Municipal Midwifery
Service to the County Hospital, Farnborough, during 1944.
Shortage of housing accommodation and home help attention
are both factors in this large increase in hospital admissions,
which is the highest figure recorded since the inception of the
Midwifery Service. There would appear to be no immediate
prospect of the demand for hospitalisation diminishing during
the next few years ; in fact, the public, having acquired by
custom the practice of hospital treatment, may tend to become
more and more institutionally-minded, so that domiciliary confinements
may well find less favour.
The Bromley and Chislehurst Maternity Hospital admitted
249 cases for confinement, of whom 202 were delivered by midwives
and 47 y doctors. In addition, 19 women were admitted
for treatment in the ante-natal period. Three cases of puerperal
Pyrexia were notified from the Hospital; six stillbirths were
notified, and one infant death occurred within ten days of birth.
Puerperal Pyi xia.
Six cases were notified within the area during 1944, and
no deaths occurred.
fare of Prem. ure Infants.
The Advisory Committee on the Welfare of Mothers and
Young Children set up by the Minister of Health was requested
to examine the question of the care of the premature infant in
view of its importance in the matter of neo-mortality.
The recommendations of the Committee were brought to
the notice of welfare authorities, and, as far as practicable under
Present conditions, steps have been taken in the area to implemet
the Minister's wishes.
Information as to weight at birth of 5½ lbs. or less is notified
and immediate visit of inquiry is .made by the health visitor,
such cases importance is attached to a separate bedroom for
mother and infant; the provision of adequate and suitable
equipment in the home; a supply of expressed breast milk
where necessary; the services of a paediatrician ; the particular
attention to the infants by midwives and health visitors, and
home help service where needed. Institutional care is available
through the County Hospital, and suitable transport for
conveyance of these infants is available through the Civil
Ambulance Service.