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(2) MIDWIVES ACT, 1936.
The Midwives Act, 1936, requires that the Local Supervising
Authority, which for West Ham is the Corporation, shall "secure
the whole time employment of a sufficient number of midwives for
attendance on women in their own homes," either as midwives
or as maternity nurses, and "may either themselves employ
salaried midwives or secure their employment by Welfare
Councils or Voluntary Organisations."
Voluntary Associations.
Having given full consideration to this question, and in view
of the fact that for many years domicilary midwifery in West
Ham has been undertaken to a very great extent by nurses working
under the direct aegis of Voluntary Organisations, the SubCommittee
of the Maternity and Child Welfare Committee recommend
that the Council shall enter into agreements with these
Associations in order to secure an efficient domiciliary midwifery
service in West Ham in accordance with the requirements of the
Act. The Voluntary Associations providing domiciliary midwifery
service in the Borough are:—
1. Plaistow Maternity Hospital and District Nurses' Home,
Howards Road, Plaistow, E.13.
Branch Homes: Victoria Docks Branch: Lansdowne Road,
E.16.
Stratford Branch : 66 Martin Street.
2. Queen Mary's Hospital for the East End.
West Ham Lane, Stratford, E.15.
3. Essex County Nursing Association.
Beachcroft Road, Leytonstone, E.1,1.
4. Mothers' Hospital, Clapton (Salvation Army).
Branch Nurses' Home: 19 Chandler Avenue, E.16.
5. Silvertown and North Woolwich District Nursing Association.
Saville Road, E.16.
Number of Midwives Required.
The Minister of Health in Circular 1569, dated 18th September,
1936, suggests that in populous districts each midwife should
be capable of attendance on 100 cases per year, 70 as a midwife,
30 as a maternity nurse. The actual nursing as a maternity nurse
does not differ from that required as a midwife; the midwife must
also be in attendance at the labour, although she herself does not
deliver the patient. Having regard to the fact that, by the
employment of midwives from Associations recognised as training
schools for pupil-midwives, the midwife receives help from
the pupil in the later nursing of her cases, it is reasonable
to expect that each midwife in this area will be able to
undertake 100 cases per year. With the exception of the Silvertown
and North Woolwich District Nursing Association, all the
organisations above-mentioned are training schools.
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