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45
Midwives Notifications to Local Supervising Authority.
During the year the following numbers of notifications were received
from all midwives, including those engaged in local maternity homes:—
Sending for medical assistance 337
Stillbirth 7
Death of infant 13
Death of mother —
Laying out the dead 2
Artificial feeding 15
Liable to be a source of infection 5
Of the 337 summonses to medical practitioners, 26 were on account
of some condition during pregnancy, 88 during labour, 185 in the lying-in
period, and 38 some abnormality of the infant.
Of the 26 summonses to a patient during pregnancy, 9 were because
of albuminuria, oedema, or toxaemia, and 14 because of haemorrhage.
Of the 88 summonses to a patient during labour, the reason in 61
instances was delayed labour, with cause unspecified. In a further 11
there was some abnormal presentation. Summonses to patients suffering
from abortion (actual or threatened) numbered 6.
Of the 185 summonses to patients in the puerperium, 140 were on
account of rupture of the perineum. Post partum haemorrhage, with or
without adherence of the placenta, was the reason in 14, a raised temperature
in 8, phlebitis 5, and inflamed breast 4.
Of the 38 summonses to infants, 6 were on account of some discharge
from the eye, 17 because of feebleness or asphyxia, 4 because of deformity,
and 11 some other abnormal state or condition.
Out of 889 midwifery cases attended, 337 is a percentage rate of 35.
The corresponding figures in the years 1942 to 1946 were, 33.1, 32.3,
32.8, 38.0 and 34.0.
Local Authority's Midwifery Service: The sixteen midwives
work in four teams of four, this arrangement proving the most convenient
to enable each to obtain the off-duty time to which she is entitled.
Last year the number of patients attended by the Council's midwives
was 1,166, being a percentage of 29-7 of the total number of confinements
of local mothers. To 861 they attended as midwives, and to
305 as maternity nurses.
Of the patients attended by midwives acting as such, 503 were
assessed to pay the full cost, in 44 cases no charge was made, while 314
were assisted. The corresponding figures in regard to patients attended
by midwives as maternity nurses were 247, 0, and 58.
The Council had agreed that pupils who had received their part I
training in London should come to this district for their part II
domiciliary training. For most of the year three pupils were here each
for three months.
The demand on accommodation at maternity institutions was so
great that many including Redhill County hospital were obliged to
discharge well before the end of the usual period of 14 days patients
who had been delivered in hospital. On being approached the Council