London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

View report page

Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London

Hackney 1968

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hackney]

This page requires JavaScript

Text

Copy text to clipboard

29
MIDWIFERY

Table: The number of home confinements has continued to decline and during 1968 fell by a further 116 to 365. The number of mothers discharged from maternity hospitals to their homes before the tenth day of the lying-in period also dropped having steadily been increasing during the last three years. Details of the domiciliary confinements during the year are set out below:-

The number of home confinements has continued to decline and during 1968 fell by a further 116 to 365. The number of mothers discharged from maternity hospitals to their homes before the tenth day of the lying-in period also dropped having steadily been increasing during the last three years. Details of the domiciliary confinements during the year are set out below:-

ConfinementsDoctor bookedGiven AnalgesiaDischarged to midwife before 10th day
Council midwives15915312359
Hospital district midwives20620215970
Total365355282129

Text

Copy text to clipboard

Because of the continued decline in the birth rate it has become
uneconomic to continue a directly maintained midwifery service. A large
proportion of the Borough is covered on an agency basis by midwives from
the Mothers Hospital in any case and during the year the Health Committee
authorised preliminary discussions with the Hackney Group Hospital Management
Committee with a view to re-organising the domiciliary midwifery service.
At the end of the year negotiations were still proceeding.
During the year 205 state certified midwives notified this Council, as
local supervisory authority, of their intention to practice within the area.
Many of the midwives are transitory as they are practising through nursing
agencies in the Borough.
In conjunction with the midwifery training school at the Mothers Hospital,
the Council provides facilities for the practical training of pupil midwives
taking Part II of their midwifery training course. Of the 52 pupils who
completed district training in this area during the year, 7 were placed for
their three month's course with midwives in the Council's domiciliary service
who are approved teachers by the Central Midwives Board.
CERVICAL CYTOLOGY
During the year, three weekly screening sessions for the taking of
cervical smears, and including a medical examination to exclude other diseases,
such as breast cancer were continued at three centres. In January, the
session at John Scott Health Centre was transferred from an afternoon to an
evening, in the hope of assisting those who are at work during the day. The
evening session which was begun at Goulton Road Treatment Centre during the
previous year was transferred to the Maternal and Child Health Centre, 6 Lower
Clapton Road in November where the facilities are more suitable.
As part of the publicity, posters and leaflets with a tear-off slip for
women to post or take to a centre has been in use constantly. Unfortunately
the number of attendances declined during the last two quarters of the year,
although the Borough's allocation for the examination of smears at Hackney
Hospital was increased by between 10% to 12%. It is thought probable that
younger women who attend ante-natal clinics and have tests routinely there
are covered more adequately than those in older age groups. It is therefore
important to try to include these, especially those reluctant to attend
clinics, by every means within one's power. The Stoke Newington Cancer