Report of the Departmental Committee appointed by the Lord President of the Council to consider the working of the Midwives Act, 1902.

  • Great Britain. Midwives Act Committee.
Date:
[1909]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report of the Departmental Committee appointed by the Lord President of the Council to consider the working of the Midwives Act, 1902. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    18/336 (page 6)
    1873. M.if{p, Amy Hughes declared it would create chaos ; and Dr. Hope, of Liverpool, 2988. thought it would be a great mistake. In these opinions the Committee concur. 30. In respect to the cognate but subsidiary question as to whether in sparsely- peopled rural areas annual licences based upon a modified examination might not be issued to meet the deficiency, there was not quite the same unanimity. The suggestion that acting nurses with a certain amount of clinical experience should be given the preference in an experiment of this sort met with no favour from the 585. ladies who spoke with most authority, such as Miss Paget, and ]\lrs. Wallace Bruce, 1366. the president of the executive committee of the Association for Promoting the 593. Training and Supply of Midwives. They laid stress upon the confusion that would 1370. ensue from even this very partial adoption of two standards, and thought the danger of compromising the minimum of safety at present secured greater than any that would follow a liberal interpretation of the conditions laid down in section 1 (2). 871-6. Miss Wilson and Sir W. Sinclair urged the necessity of a higher standard in rural 2163. than in urban areas. 4613. 31. In the view of the Society of Medical Officers of Health, it is most inadvisable that the local supervising authority should have power to grant to any suitable uncertified woman a modified licence, renewable at short intervals, and applicable onl}^ within a defined area around her own home (in a district where no certified 6209,6214. midwife is available). On the other hand. Dr. Barwise, the medical ofiicer of 6337. health for the county of Derby, and Mr. Kaye, the medical officer of health in the 3448. West Riding, were of opinion that some such concession was necessary, though they admitted that this opinion was not shared by the great bulk of their colleagues, and even Mr. Kaye believes that a reasonable elasticity of interpretation would get over 3433. his difficulty to a large extent. 32. Having regard to the general character of the evidence before them as to the means by which exceptional circumstances can be handled with the least disturliance of sound principles, the Committee are loth to recommend any departure from uniform 43-8. practice in this connection, particularly as they understand that the Midwives Board are not convinced of its necessity. It would seem that the last-mentioned body have within their ordinary powers, as defined l^y section 3 of the Act, the opportunitj^ to make such an exception if urged thereto by the authorities of any particular locality, and the Committee think it may well be left at this. The Board will, perhaps, also 2996-7. take into consideration the suggestion advocated by Dr. Hope that trained women 3055-6. who were qualified for enrolment under Section 2 of the Act, but had failed to apply 3088-9. before the 31st March, 1905, might be given another chance. The Society of Medical 4606-13. Officers of Health were also in favour of some such arrangement. 3106. 33. The Committee are alive to the fact, which was pointed out by several medical 3543. witnesses, that the words in section 1 (2) otherwise than under the direction of a qualified medical practitioner might be used in unscrupulous hands to foster the objectionable practice of covering the action of unqualified women by the assumption of a purely nominal responsibility on the part of the doctor; but they do not believe that such practices could become common without attracting pubJic attention, and bringing the doctor concerned wdthin the disciplinary powers of the General Medical Council, who, they are advised, would treat cases of the kind as examples of infamous conduct in a professional respect, in the same way as they at present deal with the employment of unqualified assistants. 34. The difficulty of replacing the unqualified woman by a superior order of practitioner is not unfortunately altogether a question of supply, as, apart from the feeling of medical men in the matter, the reluctance of a certain class of the poor themselves has to be overcome ; we were told that in many cases they prefer the old type of attendant, who is probably well known to them and is usually more helpful in the house, although she is often uncleanly and inexpert. Sometimes, too, the preference may be due to her companionable, not to say convivial, qualities, and occa- sionally, but we hope rarely, to the more sinister reason, as a medical officer put it, that she is believed to enjoy a lot of churchyard luck. In commenting upon this, the witness said they do not want the children to live. 35. We have referred to the problem as mainly one of distribution, and we are glad to be supported by the opinion of Mrs. Heywood Johnstone, who, in the result of independent investigations of great value, states that it is very much more a 3978. 4518.