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Total number of attendances by expectant
mothers at all clinics 2,370
Percentage of total notified births (live
and still) represented by the number of
expectant mothers attending the clinics 36.5
Nearly 50 per cent. of the women attended the clinic on the
recommendation of a Health Visitor that they should obtain
ante-natal supervision, and some 25 per cent. on the recommendation
of a midwife.
One-third of the women who attended were pregnant for the
first time, and a similar number for the second time. One-sixth
were pregnant for the third time, 8 per cent. for the fourth and in
the case of 10 per cent. it was the fifth or more than the fifth
pregnancy. Thirty-five women were not pregnant, and 73 attended
for post-natal examination.
The third, fifth, sixth and seventh months of pregnancy were
the times when most attended the clinic for the first time, about
one-sixth attending at each of those months. The first attendances
of most of the remainder being equally distributed in the second,
fourth and eighth months.
One-third of the mothers attended more than five times and
one-fifth attended only the once. The most common reason for
the single attendance would be that arrangements had been made
for the patient to be admitted to a hospital for her confinement,
and her remaining ante-natal supervision would be conducted by
the hospital staff. In arriving at these proportions the returns
in respect of those women who removed from the district before
the confinement or whose pregnancy terminated short of term,
have been deducted. Fifteen per cent. attended four times and
12 per cent. attended twice and three times.
As these figures relate only to those cases who attended during
1935 and would, because of the birth of the baby, not be attending
in 1936, and particularly because the great increase in the
attendances occurred in the latter part of the year, the number
of cases in respect of whom the nature of the confinement is being
referred to is not nearly the number, namely, 823, who attended
the clinics for the first time during the year. Out of the
pregnancies of 369 women, 11 resulted in an abortion or miscarriage,
and eight in a stillbirth, many of which were not at term.
296 normal confinements took place at term at which the birth
of a live child occurred and was followed by the uneventful recovery
of the mother. In 52 confinements there was some departure
from this standard. Of these, six confinements took place by
Caesarean section, mostly on account of disproportion, in all
cases with satisfactory results. Nine women were induced before
term, five on account of toxaemia or albuminuria, and three on
account of disproportion. In one of these cases the infant died
soon after birth. In a number of cases the confinement itself was