Report upon maternity and child welfare for the year 1925 / Monmouthshire County Council.

  • Monmouthshire (Wales). County Council.
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Report upon maternity and child welfare for the year 1925 / Monmouthshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The 22 cases of Puerperal Fever were investigated by the County Midwives’ Inspectress, who found that all the cases were attended by registered midwives. Details of the cases are as follows:—Number of women attended at confinement by midwife alone, 13; by medical practitioner and midwife, 9. In 8 of the cases attended by the midwife, the medical attendant was called in on the day of delivery, whilst in 2 cases a doctor was called in on the second, in one on the third, in one on the fifth, and in one on the eighth day. One patient was removed to the Royal Gwent Hospital, Nttwport, for attention. Everything possible is being done to prevent the spread of infection. A visit of the Midwives’ Inspector is paid immediately upon receipt of the notification, and the midwife is prohibited from attending other cases until she has left the infected case and has allowed 24 hours to elapse for thorough disinfection of herself, her instruments and clothing. VI. MATERNAL Mortality.—The number of deaths during the year from accidents and diseases of pregnancy and parturition was 26—8 from puerperal fever and 18 from other causes associated with child-birth. This is equal to a rate of 3*2 per 1,000 registered births, and is lower than last year’s rate of 3*9. It will probably also prove to be lower than the rate for England and Wales, which was 3*9 in 1924. VII. INFANTILE Diarrhoea.—48 cases of this disease were discovered during the investigations, and 127 re-visits paid, as against 56, and 79 re-visits for the year 1924. Fifty-five deaths were registered from this disease in children under two years of age, giving a death rate per 1,000 births of 679, as compared with 574 for the year 1924. The summer was warmer than the immediately preceding summers. During the years preceding the introduction of the County Maternity and Child Welfare scheme, the death rate averaged II per 1,000 births. It would therefore appear that the lessons taught by the scheme and the general improvement of sanitation have borne good fruit in this particular class of infant mortality, for the average rate for the past ten years, which included one very hot summer, when the rate was 17*2, has been just over 7 per 1,000 births. Printed instructions to mothers in regard to this disease are distributed by the Health Visitors when cases come to their notice. As the disease is not notifiable, it is obvious that only a small proportion of the cases are discovered by the Health Visitors. VIII. OPHTHALMIA Neonatorum.—Twenty-six cases were notified under the Public Health (Ophthalmia Neonatorum) Regulations, 1914, as compared with 40 cases for the previous year. These cases, together with other cases of eye trouble reported by the midwives, making a total of 117 cases, were followed up by the Health Visitors, who paid 345 visits to them. The number of cases in which there was unsatis¬ factory conduct on the part of the midwife was four, and in each case a warning letter was sent by the County Medical Officer. r