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attempt was made to appoint any additional staff. In May, though, the
Committee authorised the engagement of part-time midwives at a remuneration
of 3/- a visit.
It was also agreed that pupils who had received their Part I training
in London should come to this district to receive their Part II domiciliary
training. Actually no pupils came until early in 1947.
The demand on the maternity hospital accommodation at Redhill
County Hospital was becoming so great that the authorities found it
necessary to discharge far earlier than the accepted period of 14 days
many of the patients admitted to the hospital for confinement. This
early discharge meant that the services of the trained staff were available
for the assistance of a greater number of mothers at their deliveries.
The Council, on being approached, agreed to try to help the hospital
authorities by undertaking the nursing of these discharged patients.
No assurance, of course, could be given that the help could be made
available in all cases because the Council, particularly in the second half
of the year, was experiencing difficulty in maintaining its midwifery
service, and in providing the midwives to attend at the confinements
of those patients who had already booked. That a period of further
difficulty was to be entered upon was apparent from the fact that, whereas
the average number of cases delivered by the midwives each month for
the last half of the year was 88, the average bookings per month were
120.
For many years, enquiries have been instituted to discover whether
there was any anaesthetic which the midwives could be permitted to use,
one which would be free from all risk, one which would not interfere
with the uterine contractions, and yet one which would provide relief to
the mother. Various anaesthetics were suggested, but for some years
there has been general agreement that the only one which could be
officially approved was gas and air. Accordingly, before the war,
midwives who had received the necessary instruction were authorised
to administer gas and air provided the patients on being medically
examined had been found fit for the administration and on each occasion
there was present at the confinement another trained person in addition
to the midwife herself. It was probably the latter condition which held
up the general introduction of the arrangements. During the war years,
at one time there was particularly clamant agitation that all authorities
should put these facilities at the disposal of the parturient mother.
This perhaps led to a modification of this rule which has been subsequently
amended so that there is now no difficulty in providing this
person. The war, too, contributed to the difficulties, because of the
impossibility of obtaining the necessary apparatus, while in addition
there were no courses of training. Since the war, though, these difficulties
have been largely overcome, and since February midwives have been
released one at a time to attend the course of instruction. By the end
of the year, 11 had obtained their certificates. As far as possible, midwives
were released so that the number qualified in each of the four groups
in which the midwives work should be the same. No publicity was
given to the fact that any of the midwives was competent to administer
the anaesthetic until a reasonable number altogether were proficient.
It was not, then, until September that the first patient received this