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Five cases of ophthalmia neonatorum were notified, of which
two were removed for treatment to St. Margaret's Hospital, and
one received treatment at home under the Council's scheme.
All cases are investigated by the Health Visitors on receipt
of notification and are visited regularly until the eyes are clear.
Maternal Mortality.
There were 13 deaths registered as due to or associated with
pregnancy, of which five were due to sepsis, giving a maternal
mortality rate from this cause of 2.30 and for other accidents and
diseases of pregnancy and parturition a rate of 3.69, being a total
rate of 5.99 per thousand live births. The corresponding rates for
England and Wales were 2.03, 2.57 and 4.60.
In addition there were five other deaths to which pregnancy
was a contributory factor. One was that of a woman who died of
valvular disease of the heart and auricular fibrillation, being eight
months pregnant. Two cases of abortion, one at least being selfinduced,
ended fatally from septicaemia. A patient confined in
January died in April from septicaemia following a mammary
abscess. The remaining case was one of a patient in whom labour
was surgically induced and who died ten days later from miliary
tuberculosis.
Of the five fatal cases of sepsis, one patient was confined in
hospital and another in a nursing home. The remainder had their
confinements at home, but were later removed to hospital for
treatment. All five were apparently normal confinements at full
term. The death certificates in the various cases read :—“ Streptococcal
septicaemia (hæmolytic streptococcus), normal labour,"
" General peritonitis, puerperal infection following full term normal
delivery," " Septicaemia following uterine sepsis, following full
term normal delivery," " General peritonitis following full term
normal delivery," " Coronary embolism, puerperal septicaemia."
One of the eight deaths not due to sepsis was from eclampsia.
There was a history of albuminuria during pregnancy, which
cleared up two weeks before labour which was itself normal, but
shortly afterwards eclamptic convulsions set in and proved fatal.
The blood pressure had apparently not been raised. The second
case was one in which death was due to uraemia. Acute puerperal
toxæmia followed on a difficult delivery for which the patient was
admitted to hospital. Thirty-six hours after confinement the
patient began to show signs of liver changes, passing into coma and