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785 out of 881 births took place in hospitals or nursing
homes; that is 86.7% of the total births. This is a very high
figure and is probably due to the excellent accommodation so
conveniently situated within and close to the area.
The shortage of general hospital beds and of institutional
accommodation for T.B. cases has focussed attention on the
increasing bed provision for maternity cases and the justification
for the allocation of such a large proportion of hospital
accommodation for maternity cases at the present time has been
challenged in some quarters. Table II, prepared last year, is
reproduced on page 17 as it shows the trend in Merton and
Morden since 1935.
While there are many aspects of this question these
figures suggest that where the best type of accommodation and
attention is available mothers themselves at any rate seek
institutional accommodation. It used to be argued that as
every first confinement is a voyage into uncharted seas, all
primipara should be admitted to hospital so that any obstetric
procedure which became necessary should be readily available.
It is of course true, too, that with the present day small
families a higher proportion of the births are first births. The
housing situation, too, has reduced the proportion of homes
convenient for domiciliary confinements.
It is, perhaps, naive to suggest that the solution would
seem to lie in the provision of more effective general hospital and
special hospital beds. In any case anyone with midwifery
experience or a preventive outlook must feel grateful that the
day of domiciliary surgical obstetric procedure has gone and
must hope that it is gone for ever.
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