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38
MIDWIFERY SERVICE
The trend towards hospital confinements is continuing and
during 1970 only 7.2 per cent births took place in the mothers' homes.
This is in keeping with the national trend and the recommendation in
the Peel Report where closer integration between maternity hospitals
and the local authority services is advocated. A scheme proposed for
Kingston Hospital, whereby domiciliary midwives employed by the local
authority will conduct delivery of patients in a general practitioner
ward at the hospital, has been delayed as this accommodation is closed
for structural alterations.
The local authority is approved by the Central Midwives Board
as a training authority far students taking Part II of their training.
During the year twenty students were placed with the authority, and all
were successful in their final examinations.
Domiciliary midwives work in close liaison with the general
practitioners and with the health visitors in the parentcraft and psychoprophylaxis
sessions at the clinics
All babies born are tested for phenylketonuria, using the
Guthrie test. This test is either carried out in hospital or on the
district, between the sixth and fourteenth day after delivery. Specimens
are sent to the Central Laboratory, Queen Mary's Hospital, Carshalton,
for screening.

*Included in this number, one case was dealt with by a
private midwife and one by Kingston Hospital Flying Squad.