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90
MATERNITY SERVICES.
ANTE-NATAL SUPERVISION.
Home Visiting.
About one-third of the mothers confined are attended by the Council's
midwives. Health visitors are brought in touch with many of the remaining
two-thirds. The vast majority come to the ante-natal clinics and on
failure to attend are visited. Again, the almoners of hospitals welcome
the health visitor's reports on the home conditions of patients, to help
them to decide whether the home circumstances are sufficiently serious
to necessitate the confinement taking place elsewhere than at home.
During the year the health visitors paid a total of 1,273 visits to expectant
mothers, 853 being first visits.
Ante-natal Clinics.
Almost non-existent before the 1914-18 war, the ante-natal supervision
of women has now reached the stage that few expectant mothers
are not under medical care to some extent during their pregnancy. The
vast majority of mothers now attend the welfare authority's ante-natal
clinics. Here they are seen by the health visitors, their problems discussed,
and certain clinical examinations made. Periodically the
expectant mother is seen by the medical officer, and in cases of detection
of any abnormality, seen frequently until she is better.
Midwives attend with their own patients, and when circumstances
permit examine them. One of the rules of the Central Midwives' Board
is that the midwife is responsible for the ante-natal care of her patient,
and she is not absolved from this merely by encouraging her patient to
attend the clinic. Where more than one session is held in any building,
where possible one is held in the afternoon for the midwives' cases as they
are the more likely to be able to attend at that time. In such circumstances
the attendances at the morning sessions are largely made by the
mothers who are to be admitted to a hospital or other institution for
confinement. Understandings have been arrived at with many hospitals
that the ante-natal supervision of the normal patient, who is to be admitted
to the hospital, can be conducted at the local ante-natal clinic.
This saves the mother the journey to, and often a very long wait at, the
hospital. Of course the abnormal case when detected is referred to the
hospital clinic.
The following is a summary of the work done at the clinics during
the year:
Total number of expectant mothers attending the
clinics 2,747
Total number of attendances by expectant mothers at
all clinics 13,096
Percentage of total number of births (live and still)
represented by the number of mothers attending
the clinics 87.2