View report page

61
this group of obstetric beds to be used by East Ham mothers.
A glance at the appended statistics shows that two out of three of the
births in hospital take place in the Aldersbrook Maternity Hospital,,
A fairly high rate of bed occupancy is maintained to ensure as far as
possible an economic usage.
The hospital is visited regularly by a member of the staff of Forest
Gate Hospital who is also on call for difficulties that may arise in labour
and for emergencies.
The high level of nursing and general care has won for this unit a
secure place in the affections of East Ham residents, and numerous letters
and expressions of gratitude and thanks have been received from women who
have had temporary residence in its wards.
ALDERSBROOK MATERNITY HOSPITAL
STATISTICS 1952
Number of beds on 31/12/52 20
„ „ midwives employed on 31/12/52 7
„ „ patients confined during the period 1/1/52 to 31/12/52:-
(a) midwifery 472 478
(b) maternity nursing 6
„ „ midwives qualified on 31/12/52 to administer gas and
air analgesia 6
„ „ sets of apparatus of gas and air analgesia In use on
31/12/52 2
„ „ patients to whom gas and air analgesia was administered
by midwives during the period 1/1/52 to 31/12/52:-
(a) when acting as a midwife 450 454
(b) „ „ „ „ maternity nurse 4
„ „ patients to whom pethidine was administered by midwives
during period 1/1/52 to 31/12/52:-
(a) when acting as midwife 291 297
(b) when acting as maternity nurse 6
„ „ occasions, medical aid sought by midwives under section
14(1) of the Midwives Act, 1951 25
„ „ infant deaths during the year 6
„ „ premature infants born during the year 18
„ „ still births during the year 4
SECTION 23 - MIDWIFERY SERVICE
The midwifery service has now been reorganised by the Superintendent
Nursing Officer who is also the lay Inspector of Midwives to this Council. -
All the midwives have had refresher courses in the modern methods of
obstetric technique, and their equipment has been completly overhauled and
brought up-to-date. Co-operation with the general practitioners on the
one hand, and the health visitors on the other, is excellent, and the midwives
attend special ante-natal sessions in the Council's clinics to get to
know their "own mothers" and take part in ante-patal supervision.
They give gas and air analgesia whenever the indications are present,
but it is found that the inception of relaxation and ante-natal exercise
groups for expectant women has resulted in a decided tendency to lessen the
need for analgesics in childbirth.
However, Pethidine also is employed and it may well be the comparative
simplicity of the Pethidine technique has been a contributory factor in
reducing the number of cases in which gas-oxygen analgesia is employed.