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32
Ante-Natal Services.
In addition to the systematic supervision received by all
patients who make arrangements for their confinement in the
London County Council St. Giles' and Dulwich Hospitals, which
are situated in this Borough, similar facilities are available for
women living in the Borough entering General Maternity Hospitals
in various parts of London. There is also an ante-natal clinic
attached to the General Lying-in Hospital Post-Certificate Midwifery
School, Southampton Street, Camberwell, for women to be
confined in their own homes by midwives of this school.
Ante-natal consultations are also held at the Municipal Infant
Welfare Centre, 140, Camberwell Road, and at the Bird-in-Bush
Infant Welfare Voluntary Centre, 616, Old Kent Road.
Women attend these Welfare Centre Clinics either of their own
accord, or are referred to them by Doctors or practising Midwives.
Unfortunately the practising midwives in this Borough do not
appear to have availed themselves of the advantages of these
Clinics to any greater extent than in previous years, nor is there
any reason to believe that they recommend their patients to be
examined by general practitioners.
I am still of the opinion that continuous ante-natal supervision
should be part of a midwife's obligation when she has accepted the
responsibility of seeing a woman through her confinement to the
end of the puerperium, and that it should be her duty, even in
apparently normal cases, to take her patient to her own doctor or to
an ante-natal clinic for the medical officer to confirm whether her
conclusions concerning the patient were correct, and for him to offer
advice in cases where special treatment may be required.
There is no doubt that closer co-operation between midwives
and the Maternity and Child Welfare Authority is necessary in this
all-important work of ante-natal supervision.
This lack of co-operation is possibly due to the fear that the
Clinic Medical Officer might refer the patient to her own doctor or
to a hospital for the confinement, thus adding to the financial
difficulties of the midwife whose income is steadily declining owing
to the falling birth rate, and to the increasing desire on the part of
pregnant women to enter Institutions for their confinements.
Unfortunately at the present moment there is no municipal
scheme of compensation for midwives in cases where for medical
reasons it is necessary to recommend a patient for confinement in
hospital. The absence of a scheme of this kind may explain why
the number of cases sent by midwives to the ante-natal clinics is
so small.
The following is a table of the attendances at the Ante-natal
Clinics attached to Infant Welfare Centres in Camberwell during
the year:—