London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Bromley 1946
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Bromley]
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31
CARE OF PREMATURE INFANTS.
Special care and attention is paid by the health visitors and
midw ives to these cases. Notifications of births are required to
disclose prematurity of infants with a birth weight of 5½ lbs.
or under. Information of births occurring in the Borough but
normally resident outside the area is passed on to the authority
concerned.
Figures of premature births in Bromley during 1946:—
| No. notified— | ||
| (a) Home births | 13 | |
| (b) Institutional births | 28 | |
| 41 | ||
| Details of non-residents transferred to other authorities | 11 | |
| 0/ the home birth cases:— | ||
| (a) Nursed entirely at home | 12 | |
| (b) Moved to hospital | 1 | |
| — | 13 | |
| (c) Died during the first 24 hours of life | 2 | |
| (d) Survivors at the end of one month | 11 | |
| — | 13 | |
| (a) Died during first 24 hours of life | 8 | |
| (b) Died in the first week | 5 | |
| (c) Survivors at the end of one month | 15 | |
| — | 28 | |
| Under 2 lbs | 4 | |
| 2 lbs. and under 3 lbs | 7 | |
| 3 lbs. and under 4 lbs. ' | 7 | |
| 1 lbs. and not over 5½ lbs. | 23 | |
| 41 |
HOME HELPS.
Four full-time helps are employed in the municipal midwifery
service. Part-time service was given on 50 occasions
by various approved persons. Home help assistance was
arranged for mothers in 126 instances. The supply has not fully
met the demands for this extremely necessary adjunct in present
day domiciliary maternity service. I fear home helps will be
scarce for a long time. The Domestic Help Scheme which
unctions apart from the Home Help Scheme, and is reported
later in this Report, is not entirely a comparable service.