London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Sutton 1971
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Sutton]
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DOMICILIARY MIDWIFERY
The following table gives some indication of the volume of work carried out by the domiciliary midwives:-
| No. of domiciliary confinements attended by midwives under NHS arrangements during 1971 | No. of confinements attended by D.M. in hospital | No. delivered in institution but discharged to D.M. before 10th day | Total No. of visits made by D.M. | Ante-Natal cases visited by D.M. | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Doctor Present | Doctor not present | Total | |||||||||||
| 1971 | 1970 | 1971 | 1970 | 1971 | 1970 | 1971 | 1970 | 1971 | 1970 | 1971 | 1970 | 1971 | 1970 |
| 25 | 39 | 133 | 185 | 158 | 224 | 112 | 27 | 614 | 627 | 17741 | 14301 | 4070 | 5178 |
It will be noted that the number of domicilary confinements continue to fall. The
Department of Health and Social Security recommends that as far as possible all women
should be confined in hospital but discharged home as soon as possible after the delivery.
There has been increasing emphasis placed on the attendance of the domiciliary
midwives at deliveries in hospital. There were 112 such deliveries in 1971 compared with
27 in 1970.
It is not possible to attach midwives to general practitioners since the number of
midwives is relatively small but all midwives have established a liaison area with groups
of medical practitioners.
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