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53
natal clinics have tended to fall away as general practitioners have taken a renewed interest in
caring for their pregnant patients. The majority of patients attending doctors' sessions at the
centres are booked for hospital confinement. They are saved frequent long journeys to the
hospital by receiving attention locally in the intermediate months of pregnancy. All the centres
now have midwives' sessions, apart from the doctors' sessions, where those expecting domiciliary
confinements are examined by the midwife who is likely to be present at the birth. Wherever
possible, patients expecting to be confined at home are encouraged to book ageneral practitioner
to attend them for the pregnancy and birth but where they do not do this the mothers have two or
three supervisory examinations by the clinic doctor.
In Hornsey the majority of patients are booked for confinement at the Alexandra Maternity
Home. The ante-natal care for these patients continues to be undertaken entirely by the local
clinics. The matron of the Home knows all the Hornsey health visitors personally, which makes
co-operation much easier. In the course of the year further improvements have been made in the
system of exchanging information with the Home.
The percentage of expectant mothers making at least one attendance at one of the local
authority ante-natal clinics was 61.3% in 1960 compared with 63.6% the previous year.

Midwives Ante-natal Clinics
The following table shows the attendances made during the year:-