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buting to the excellent record of the Borough in respect of the
low maternal mortality and morbidity rates is the sound training
and method of these Associations from which the district Midwives
work. The methods of the private Midwives are quite equal
to those of the nurses practising from the Maternity Hospitals.
The Council does not employ or subsidise any district Midwives.
*Total Number of Midwives who notified their intention to
practise in the Borough in 1933, 86. Number in practise at the
end of 1933, 59.
(*This figure appears unduly large owing to the fact that
many pupil Midwives who receive their Midwifery training from
large Midwifery Centres in West Ham, continue to practise from
their school for varying periods after passing the required Central
Midwives' Board Examination).
It will be obvious that the women of West Ham are
fortunate in being able to obtain skilled nursing at the confinement
and in the puerperium, and it is therefore all the more
regrettable that there are still a few general practitioners in the
Borough who encourage their patients to engage untrained
women as maternity nurses, and who allow these women to
conduct the major part of the labour. Where such facts have
come to the knowledge of the Medical Officer of Health, the
"maternity nurse" has been interviewed, but it has been impossible
to take proceedings against these women who have always
been able to cover themselves by the fact that they were working
with a doctor. The general effect of such interviews, however,
has been to ensure that a doctor is summoned at an earlier stage
of any subsequent confinement the women may attend.
Number of cases attended by Midwives in 1933 3487
Number of cases in which medical aid was summoned 517
Number of cases in which the midwife acted as a
maternity nurse 198
Stratford Day Nursery.
The Stratford Day Nursery is the only institution of its kind
in the Borough, and it has continued to carry out its excellent
work in helping the mothers, who are obliged to leave their young
children daily in order to go out to work. It is provided by a
Voluntary Association, but receives a grant from the Council.
Fifty children under five years of age can be accommodated here.
During 1933 there were 7,566 total attendances at the Nursery,
making an average daily attendance of 33 children. The daily
charge per child is 8d.
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