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Mention has been made in previous reports of the growing tendency
to institutional confinement. Three-quarters of all Carshalton babies are
now born in hospitals and nursing homes and this is common experience.
The pros and cons of institutional as against domiciliary confinement
are, in normal times, a matter of opinion, but there can surely be no
justification for the allocation of such a high proportion of hospital
accommodation to maternity when there is an acknowledged shortage
of beds for medical and surgical purposes. The needs of the obstetrically
abnormal or potentially abnormal are recognised, but no one could
maintain that the standard of home conditions and its suitability for
domestic midwifery has deteriorated 100 per cent. in the last ten years,
which is what the present practice implies. Moreover, the Home Help
Service established under the National Health Service Act now provides
even better assistance during childbirth where home care is inadequate.
Undoubtedly one of the principal factors in this demand for hospital
accommodation has been the fact that under the existing scale of
allowances it is cheaper to have a baby in hospital than at home.
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