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59
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 1,760 visits to expectant
mothers, 1,238 being first visits.
Ante-natal Clinics.
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. 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.
The following is a summary of the work done at the clinics during
the year:
Total number of expectant mothers attending the
clinics 3,083
Total number of attendances by expectant mothers at
all clinics 15,251
Percentage of total number of births (live and still)
represented by the number of mothers attending
the clinics 76.0
General Practitioner Ante-natal Scheme.
For many years the Council has had a scheme in force by which an
expectant mother, to be attended at home by a midwife, can obtain her
ante-natal supervision by her own doctor instead of attending the clinic,
the Council paying the medical attendant an agreed fee. Most of the
local medical practitioners agreed to participate in the scheme. Insured
patients are entitled, as part of the service, to ante-natal supervision, but
in such cases, the authority is empowered to pay for the report received
from the medical attendant. The scheme also extends to the post-natal
examination. In no year has any large number of patients been dealt
with under these arrangements. Last year the number was only 12
ante-natally examined and 3 post-natally.