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32
About one half the confinements occurring during 1909 were
treated by the midvvives registered under the Act, and the results
were certainly extremely good.
There is no doubt but that the fact that women attended by
midwives cannot so easily procure the early administration of
chloroform as when attended by a doctor, means fewer instrumental
deliveries, fewer difficulties with the placenta, and less sepsis.
On the other hand, it must be remembered that midwives do
not always care to attend primiparae, unless a doctor is engaged as
well. Under these circumstances the midwife acts technically as a
maternity nurse, and not as a midwife.
It is in respect of these cases that I apprehend difficulty under
the new regime, for either the lady Inspector must attempt the
control of work for which doctors are really responsible, or else
an important part of midwives' practice will escape official
cognizance.
I hold strongly that any chief Inspector of midwives should be
a qualified practitioner, either male or female, and am supported in
this opinion by most, if not all, Medical Officers of Health.
The estimate given in Table I. of the population of this district
for the year 1909, exceeds that for 1908 by 2,000. The estimate
is based on the number of inhabited houses enumerated at Midsummer,
1909, and the assumption that the average number of
persons per house has slightly decreased since the Census of 1901,
bearing in mind the fact that the increase in new houses was
greater in the second than in the first half of the year.
The number of births during 1909 was 703, and this figure
gives us a birth rate of 23, slightly lower than last year.
The number of births registered in Barnes proper was 278—
eight less than in 1899; Morlake, however, is to be credited