View report page

52
CARE OF MOTHERS AND YOUNG CHILDREN
(Section 22)

Maternity Services
During 1960 the report of the Cranbrook Committee on the Maternity Services of the country
continued to influence those administering maternity care. Many of its recommendations have not
yet been implemented and there is cause for disappointment in the rate of improvement in the
services. The report recommended that sufficient hospital maternity beds should be provided
for a national average of 70% of all births to take place in hospital. In this Area we have 80%
institutional confinements (hospital and nursing home) and still our greatest problem is lack of
hospital beds. It is an unfortunate fact that hospitals appear so overwhelmed with numbers
applying for booking that on occasions they are even forced to refuse admission to a mother whom
they know to be a special medical risk during delivery. In the case of applications for admission
on social grounds, e.g. where the house is considered unsuitable for a confinement, unless the
request is made in the very early months of pregnancy it is common for the application to be
refused. Our domiciliary midwives frequently have to conduct deliveries in small singly-rented
furnished rooms where bathrooms and kitchens are shared by several other tenants and where other
children of the family have to betaken intoa neighbour's room temporarily while the delivery takes
place. Sometimes it is possible to arrange for admission to hospital through the Emergency Bed
Service once labour has started but this is unsatisfactory for all, since the hospital has no prior
knowledge of the mother and the mother is left in a state of indecision until the very last moment.
To deal with this main problem and many others, special Maternity Liaison Committees have
been formed where representatives of the three branches of the health service; hospitals, general
practitioners and the health department can meet for discussions. Our department is represented
on the North Central London and on the North Middlesex Liaison Committees. Both these
have met twice in 1960 and it is hoped that their influence will make itself felt in the future.
Ante-natal Clinics
These clinics show no decline in numbers and continue to be busy sessions at almost all the
centres. This is contrary to the experience in many parts of the country where local authority