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95
Salvation Army Midwifery Service.- One Salvation
Army midwife, with a further midwife assisting her as required,
served in Ilford during the year and in view of the
shortage of County Council midwives the governing body, the
Mothers' Hospital, Clapton, agreed to their undertaking
certain cases outside their normal area to relieve the
position to a degree. 164 cases were attended by them, 160
as a midwife and 4 as a maternity nurse. A Doctor was
called in to 43 of these cases.
Of the infants born there was one stillbirth.
Notifications were received from the Salvation Army
Midwives that it was proposed to substitute artificial feeding
in respect of 26 infants.
Gas and Air Analgesia.- During 1959 gas and air
analgesia was administered in 515 cases, of which 376 were
attended by the Domiciliary Midwives (348 when acting as
midwives and 28 when acting as maternity nurses) and 139
were attended by the Salvation Army midwives (135 when
acting as midwives and 4 as maternity nurses).
All the domiciliary midwives employed at the end of
the year were qualified to administer gas and air analgesia
and the Salvation Army midwives were also so qualified.
Arrangements continued in operation for each of the
midwives using cars in the course of their duties to hold a
machine at their respective homes to take with them to their
own cases and there are also machines stored at the Ambulance
Station for the use of the remaining midwives. With
regard to the latter, the relatives of the patient are requested
to collect a machine, where possible, but when they
cannot do this, arrangements are made for a machine to be
transported from the Ambulance Station to the house by a
hired car.
The Salvation Army midwives also have two machines
which are kept at their Branch Home and taken or sent to
the home of the patient when required.
The service is freely available to al! living home
confinements, provided there are no medicalcontra-indications,
and each expectant mother on booking the midwife is
supplied with a leaflet explaining the nature and the availability
of the service.