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Midwifery and Home Nursing
The number of domiciliary confinements in the Borough attended
by the County Council's midwives was 202, 139 in their capacity
as midwife and 63 as maternity nurse. Of this total 177 received gas
and air analgesia, a percentage of 87.6.
Puerperal Pyrexia Regulations, 1951
During the year 66 cases of puerperal pyrexia were notified, 65
of them following hospital confinement, and 1 domiciliary. This
figure of 66 gives a notification rate of 82.29 for the Borough as
compared to 18.23 for England and Wales.
The discrepancy here shown is not considered to be of any great
significance. Very many of the notifications under the above regulations
were in respect of raised temperatures caused by conditions
such as colds and influenza which have no connection with child
bearing.
It should be pointed out, also, that this notification rate does not
present a true picture of the position so far as it affects the residents
of the Borough, for 39 of these cases occurred in patients who reside
outside the Borough but whose confinement took place in a hospital
within the Borough. The regulations provide that the notification
must be accepted by the Authority in whose area the hospital is
situated, since the disease occurs at that address. So far as residents
of this district are concerned, 27 cases occurred, which would produce
a true notification rate to residents per 1,000 total births of 33.66.
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