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MIDWIFERY SERVICE. The number of births notified
in West Ham as adjusted by transferred notifications was:—
Live births 4,331
Still births 91
Total 4,422
The number of maternity cases in West Ham attended by
midwives was:—
(a) As midwives 4,774
(i) Domiciliary 2,063
(ii) In hospital 2,711
(b) As maternity nurses 675
(i) Domiciliary 113
(ii) In hospital 562
Medical aid was summoned by midwives (under Section 14
(1) of the Midwives Act, 1918) in 1,846 cases.
Analgesics were administered by midwives in domiciliary
practice in only 42 cases, but steps will be taken as soon as
practicable to train all practising midwives in this work, and
to provide them with the necessary apparatus. The maintained
high birth rate in 1947 greatly taxed the resources of the local
Maternity Hospitals and gave rise to gross overcrowding of
the ante-natal sessions, where 30 to 40 or more mothers attended
per session, rendering impossible the educative side of the work,
which is equally as important as the clinical.
The 3 Maternity Hospitals were used to capacity (viz.,
Forest Gate Hospital, Queen Mary's Hospital, and Plaistow
Maternity Hospital), having admitted 3,460 mothers, of whom
2,130 were West Ham residents. Five hundred and ninety-two
expectant mothers were admitted ro the ante-natal wards for
observation and treatment for conditions diagnosed at the antenatal
Clinics.
In addition, 113 West Ham mothers were sent to emergency
maternity hospitals, maintained by the Ministry of Health as
a continuation of the war-time evacuation scheme, to assist the
London County Council and extra-Metropolitan London Boroughs
in this urgent problem affecting the maternity services.
Six unmarried mothers were assisted by the Council's
arrangements for the care of the unmarried mother and her
child, 4 being sent to the Diocesan Maternity Home, Coggesball,
Essex, and 2 to the Essex County Council Post-Natal Hostel at
Buckhurst Hill.
While the Council has not appointed a social worker for
the care of the unmarried mother, there was close co-operation
between the staff of the Public Health Department and the
Diocesan Moral Welfare Worker in charge of St. Agatha's
Hostel, Stratford. The problems of the unmarried mother
and the illegitimate child were, happily, solved in the majority
of cases, the girl being given shelter in her own home, to
which she usually returned after confinement, with her baby;
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