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being made for the appointment of a fourth midwife at a
later date should this he found to be necessary.
The agreement provides for a payment of £400 per
annum to the District Nursing Association by the Corporation.
The fee for the services of a midwife acting either as a midwife
or a maternity nurse is £2 in respect of a first confinement
and thirty shillings in respect of a subsequent confinement,
A scale is also in force for the purpose of determining
what proportion of the full fee is to be paid by the patient or
her husband or other person liable to maintain her. This is
determined in accordance with the financial circumstances of
the family. When the net weekly income per head of the
family, after making the usual deductions, is below seventeen
shillings no charge is made for the services of the midwife.
There is every reason to hope that as this service of whole-time
domiciliary midwives becomes more widely known to the
public greater use will be made of the facilities available under
the Act,
A Joint Committee was formed consisting of three representatives
of the Council's Maternity and Child Welfare
Committee and three representatives of the Nursing Association.
This Committee acts in an advisory capacity and forms
a liaison between the two bodies concerned.
At the end of 1936 the domiciliary midwives had attended
forty-four cases, ten as midwives and thirty-four as maternity
nurses. In addition, forty-seven cases had been booked for
the early part of 1938.
The Council dealt with one claim for compensation from
a midwife who surrendered her certificate voluntarily under
Section 5 of the Act. The compensation paid in this case
amounted to £391 12s. 3d., a small proportion of which was
payable by a neighbouring Authority in whose district the
midwife had also practised. In a second case the Council
made a payment of £20 0s. 4d. to the Surrey County Council,
representing the proportion of the compensation due to a
midwife living in that area who had voluntarily surrendered
her certificate and a part of whose practice was in the Borough
of Wimbledon. A third midwife, residing in Wimbledon,
surrendered her certificate at her own request. She was not
eligible for compensation as she had not practised as a midwife
within the prescribed time prior to the passing of the
Midwives Act, 1936.
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