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92
The Council receives 15s. from St. Bartholomew's Hospital for every case in
which the municipal midwife acts as maternity nurse in the manner described.
PLACES OF CONFINEMENT
Of the 1,260 confinements which occurred during 1937, 739, or 59.0 per cent.,
took place in institutions, and 521, or 41.0 per cent., in the homes of the women
concerned.
MATERNITY DRESSINGS
During the year 486 sterilised maternity outfits were supplied to mothers
through the ante-natal clinics and the midwives practising in the Borough. The
use of these outfits undoubtedly tends to make the confinement more hygienic. The
patients who received the sets were asked to contribute what they could afford
towards the cost.
HOME HELPS
Home helps are provided from a panel of 12 women who have been approved
for this duty by the Maternity and Child Welfare Committee. During the year these
women attended, to assist with the housework, etc., 184 cases, of which 154 were
conducted by midwives, 14 by students from St. Bartholomew's Hospital, 1 by a
student from the London Hospital, 4 where the patient was admitted to St. Leonard's
Hospital, in 7 cases of illness on the recommendation of medical practitioners, and
4 where mothers had been sent for convalescence.
The women on the panel are specially selected for this duty and they work according
to rules which have been drawn up to regulate their duties, and to prevent the
possibility of a home help in any circumstances acting as a nurse. A printed copy
of these rules is supplied to the home help and also to the woman she will attend.
Application for the services of a home help is made by the husband and the charge
is based on a scale of income, reference to which is made in the annual report for
1933 (page 128).
Under the arrangement with St. Bartholomew's Hospital all patients who are
to be attended by the hospital students are offered the services of a home help if
their income is under scale.
POST-NATAL WORK
One post-natal clinic is held at the Model Welfare Centre on the second and fourth
Wednesdays in each month. This clinic was established in 1931, and the following
table gives particulars of the first attendances and total visits for the year over a
period of six years:—