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It was subsequently decided:—
(a) That in cases where a municipal midwife has been engaged to attend a confinement
and it is subsequently found necessary for the confinement to take place in hospital, no charge
be made for such services as the municipal midwife may have rendered.
(b) That, in cases where a municipal midwife has been engaged to attend a confinement
and the woman suffers a miscarriage, the charge assessed under the scale adopted by the Borough
Council for the services of the midwife for the confinement be reduced by one half.
7. That when first appointing the eight midwives, married women be eligible for appointment,
but that in subsequent appointments only single women be eligible and that single women,
when appointed, be informed that they must relinquish their position on marriage.
A Supervisor of Midwives was appointed and took up duty on 1st September. This
officer was also appointed as Superintendent Health Visitor and Inspector of Nursing Homes.
Eight midwives, all of whom had practised locally, commenced duty as Municipal Midwives
in October. One of these left the service in December.
Most of the cases which these eight midwives had booked at the time of taking up their
appointments, elected to be attended by the same midwives under the municipal scheme. Thus
we started with 123 cases and during the remaining three months of the year 110 further cases
were booked.
From 1st October to 31st December 104 confinements were attended by the municipal
midwives, 91 as midwives, 6 of these being patients previously booked and resident outside the
district, but attended by special arrangement, and 13 as maternity nurses.
In working the scheme, patients are given a choice of midwives as far as possible. Midwives
have been allotted to certain parts of the district and mothers in each area have the choice
of two or three midwives.
As was to be expected in a scheme of this character, certain administrative difficulties have
been encountered. These, however, have all been successfully overcome, and the service is
working very smoothly. It is very gratifying to record that we are receiving a number of letters
of appreciation from patients, which, I feel, give some index as to the success of the scheme.
As from 1st April, 1937, being Local Supervising Authority under the Midwives Acts, the
Council was responsible for the payment of fees of medical practitioners when called in by
midwives in cases of emergency.
The following scale has been adopted for the purpose of assessing the amount to be repaid
to the Council in respect of any fees paid by them to a medical practitioner under the Midwives
Acts, when the patient claims inability to pay.
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