View report page

50
The number of women who attended at the six ante-natal centres
for the first time during the year (703) is equivalent to 22.5 per cent.
of the total births registered in that period. It should be remembered,
however, that a large proportion of the births to Hackney
women occur in hospitals, principally in the Salvation Army
Mothers' Hospital, Clapton, and the London County Council's local
general hospital (Hackney Hospital). Women who book to enter
these hospitals for confinement, with the exception of a few who are
admitted as emergency cases, are referred to the ante-natal clinics
established at the hospitals.
Ante-natal sessions are now held three times weekly at the
Hackney Hospital, and I am informed by the Medical Superintendent
that 9-10 women attended at the ante-natal clinic for the first time
during 1936, the total attendances numbering 5,480. Of the 908
deliveries in the hospital during the year, 770 were to Hackney
women.
Three hundred and fifty-eight births to Hackney mothers were
notified from the Salvation Army Mothers' Hospital in 1936.
It may be estimated, therefore, that the number of women
normally resident in the Borough who received attention at antenatal
clinics during the year was equivalent to 60 per cent. of the
births registered in that period.
For some years past the Council has had an arrangement with
the London County Council under which women showing signs of
abnormal or multiple pregnancy are referred to Hackney Hospital
for X-ray examination. During 1936 an arrangement was made
with the authorities of the City of London Hospital for Diseases
of the Heart and Lungs, Victoria Park, for the X-ray examination
of expectant mothers referred from the ante-natal clinics to the
Hospital for an expression of opinion upon heart conditions.
Eight mothers were referred to Hackney Hospital and one to
the City of London Hospital during 1936 for X-ray examination
under these arrangements.
Artificial Sunlight Clinic.—An Artificial Sunlight Clinic is
held weekly upon the premises of the Infant Welfare Centre at
No. 28, Lower Clapton Road. The cases treated are principally