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Extern and Intern Maternity Services conducted by
Voluntary Agencies in close Co-ordination with the
Municipal Activities.
The Maternity scheme of West Ham County Borough
presents many satisfactory features, among which the more
important are the large proportion of confinements conducted in
the homes of the women by carefully supervised midwives provided
by voluntary agencies, and the close co-operation maintained
between the municipal and voluntary bodies.
The Plaistow Maternity Hospital and District Nurses' Home
is a training centre of district-nurse-midwives for 38 Nursing
Associations throughout England and Wales, and also provides
an organised course of post-certificate training for midwives.
The Association affords facilities, not only for domiciliary confinement
of many of the women in the Borough, but also in its
maternity hospital for the in-patient treatment of cases of doubt
or difficulty met with in the district. Medical supervision and
treatment are carried out by medical officers attached to the
hospital, who conduct district antenatal clinic sessions, render
assistance to the midwives in response to medical aid calls, and
are in clinical charge of the maternity patients in the hospital.
Thus complete continuity of medical supervision and treatment
is secured.
The Borough is also indebted to Queen Mary's Hospital
maternity unit, to which many of the complicated maternity cases
detected at the municipal antenatal clinics are referred for the
advice of specialists, or for admission at the time of confinement.
This hospital has also an extern maternity district under the
medical supervision of the obstetric staff of the hospital.
The municipal activities include not only many antenatal
clinics conducted by full-time medical officers, but generous provision
for the distribution of milk and additional nourishment
to the expectant and nursing mothers resident in the Borough.
Careful instruction of mothers bv medical officers and health
risitors in the dietary suited to pregnancy forms an important
feature of the scheme.
Situated in a congested working-class district, the Borough
has yet enjoyed a low average puerperal mortality rate over a long
period of years. The efficiency of the services, the large proportion
of confinements conducted by midwives under close and careful
supervision, the important part played by the medical officerattached
to the hospitals in securing continuity of medical supervision
and treatment, and the attention paid to the dietetic needs
of the women are the outstanding features of the maternity
scheme. That these should be associated with a low average
puerperal mortality rate may not be without significance.
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