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]
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.
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![19 May W09.] Mi', E, P, YoPNa. [Gontinued. a report of theii' workmg of the Act ?—I think it would be ^very expensive to send inspectors. We ought to have the power now and then of doing it, but it should be very cautiously exercised. 6894. Would you favour' a system under which the local supervising authority should report to you ?—I think they should report, and there ought to be some penalty attaching to their not doing it. 6895. In your precis you suggest that payment should be provided for midwives attending at the penal board, and then you say it is imfair to them when *' the Board employ and pay for legal assistance and witnesses ?—Yes. 6896. Do you suggest that payment should be made for counsel to defend the midwives ?—Supposing a woman comes up and she gets oft', she has to pay the whole of that expense, even if she does not get convicted and is not taken off the roll, and I say it is very hard upon these poor women. 6897. What is hard ?—That they should have to pay their railway fare up to London, and get a baiTister to defend them. 6898. You suggest that payment should be provided for their travelUng expenses and also for counsel to defend them ?—I think we ought not to be placed in a different position from them. It is not justice to them, in my opinion. 6899. You would include even midwives who consciously and persistently had infringed the Act, and you think that nevertheless they should be given legal assistance to defend theru ?—Of course that is a difficult , question, but when a case is sent up to the Board, we expect SL prima facie case is made out before it is sent up to us by the local supervising authority. 6900. But how does that affect the question of the midwife defending herself ? In coming up ? 6901. Yes ?—She has to lose her time in going before the authority, and then she has also, if they find a prima facie case, to come up before us. 6902. But would you suggest that you should pay, out of public moneys, for counsel to defend the midwife in all circumstances ?—No, certainly not in all cases. 6903. Then in what cases would you suggest that you should pay her legal expenses ; would it be where she is not convicted ?—Where she is not convicted. 6904. Where she is not convicted only ?—Yes. 6905. Have the Rules of the Central Midwives Board, especially Rule E. 18, resulted in midwives caUing in doctors more frequently ?—Yes, I think they do send for them more frequently. 6906. In fact, that has increased the practice of medical men in that respect very considerably, has it ..not ?—No, I do not think it has very considerably. 6907. But it has resulted in their being called in more frequently ?—Yes, they are called in, but fre- quently do not attend. 6908. But it has increased their practice in that respect?—Yes, and diminished the number of normal cases that they attend; they are worse off. 6909. On the balance of the two they are worse off, you say.''—Yes, I think the medical practitioner is worse off. 6910. That is simply a general feeling, but I suppose you have not any definite facts to go on in that matter; it is rather difficult to get them, is it not ?—It is. 6911. You have estimated the number of confine- ments lost, but not the number of calls that they have had ?—It is simply from what I hear from different men who wi-ite to me, and of whom I know. 6912. Now from your own experience, looking back on your own practice, do you not think that there are a considerable number of cases now in which doctors are called in by midwives, and that there would be still more if these Rules were more adequately administered, than was the case in former days ?—No, I think they do not come to us. They go to institutions like Queen Charlotte's Hospital. If they cannot get assistance fr-om Queen Charlotte's Hospital, then they will i-un to us on an emergency. 6913. In rural districts, of course, they go to the general practitioner in such cases ?—Yes. 6914. Have you considered how far women of an inferior grade assist in evasion of the Act by being under the supervision of medical practitionei-s ?—I do not think you ought to lower the standard. I think many of these midwives are not safe. 6915. Many of these women employed by medical practitioners as monthly nm-ses you mean ?—Yes, the women generally. 6916. But do you include women who are woi-kino- as monthly nurses ?—Yes, I think some of these women are grossly ignorant. 6917. Of course monthly nurses are not touched by the Act ?—No, but if they take a case on their o-sra responsibility they will be touched. 6918. After next year, of com-se, that difficulty will cease, where the Act is can-ied out, in so far as they are taking practice on their own account ?—Yes. 6919. But after the year 1910 a few untrustworthy women may still be employed to a considerable extent by medical men in cases where the medical men are also engagedYour point is this, I think : what wiU happen next year when these women cannot go on attending ? 6920. My point is whether they will still be prac- tising a good deal imder nominal medical supervision ?— That question of medical supervision is a most difficult question; it is the question of covering, and so forth. 6921. Would you suggest it would be feasible to insist on a standard for monthly nurses as well as mid- wives ?—I do not think the standard that we have ought to be lowered. I do not think it would be safe. 6922. (Dr. Champneys.) With regard to the ques- tion that Mr. Fremantle has just been asking jow, were you considering the question of women acting as monthly nm-ses, and do you think there shoiild be any recognition of them, or that the Act should be enlarged in any way so as to include monthly nurses ?—No, I do not think so. 6923. Now with regard to the Central Midwives Board and their penal proceedings ; the midwife comes up from the country, and if the charge is not proved she remains on the roll; do you think that, iu all cases where she is not removed from the roU, she should have her expenses paid, or that the Central Midwives Board should have a discretion to allow expenses in cases where they think the woman has been hardly treated ? —I think some an-angements ought to be made in that way. 6924. But I thought you answered Mr. Fremantle by saying that, in all cases where she was acquitted, her expenses ought to be paid ?—Yes. 6925. But do you think that is so in aU cases, or only in certain cases, because we may have a very shrewd idea that the woman is a very bad practi- tioner though she has escaped, but we cannot prove it; would you pay her expenses in that case ?—Yes. 6926. Without any discretion being allowed to the Central Midwives Board?—I think there should be discretion, but we are precluded now. Sometimes we think it is very hard. 6927. But you would not think the thing should act automatically ?—No. 6928. You would not say because a women is not removed from the roll therefore she should have her expenses paid whether we like it or not ?—No, I think there should be discretion. 6929. {Chairman.) Do you think that, in the selection of examiners, the Central Midwives Board make as much use of the general practitioner as they might ?—No, I do not think they do. 6930. You think they might be employed more often ?—Yes. 6931. Do you think the general practitioner would be a very useful type of examiner ?—Yes, better than the others, I think. Some men are splendid examiners. 6932. The general practitioner's famiharity with the conditions under which midwives work would perhaps fit him better for examming than a special practitioner —Yes. 6933. Then with regard to the number of candidates from poor law institutions, do you think that, throughout the history of the Central Midwives Board, sufficient](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21361113_0306.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
