[Report 1972] / Medical Officer of Health, Wiltshire County Council.

  • Wiltshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1972
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1972] / Medical Officer of Health, Wiltshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    STAFF The number of practising midwives in the area at the end of the year was as follows :— Domiciliary midwives (a) employed by County Council ... ... 58 60 (b) Hospital Management Committee ... 3 4 Hospital Midwives ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 103 116 Midwives in private practice (including those in nursing homes) ... — 164 180 (The figures in light type are those for 1971) WORK UNDERTAKEN The following table gives a summary of the work done during the year by all midwives in the County, excluding Swindon. Category Home Confinements Confinements in Hospitals and Nursing Homes Doctor not booked Doctor booked Totals Doctor present at delivery Doctor not present Doctor present at delivery Doctor not present County Council Midwives Midwives employed by Hospital Management Committees ... Private Midwives 3 2 25 23 - . _ _ 29 38 12 14 327 271 61 152 384 334 73 167 26 61 4,707 4,452 TOTALS ... 3 2 25 24 41 52 388 423 457 501 4,733 4,513 GI *AND TOTAL 5,190 5,014 In addition to the figures given in the above table County Council midwives were asked to attend 3,240 women discharged from maternity hospitals before the ninth day. The changing pattern in midwifery is shown by the following figures :— Year Total Births Home confinements Hospital confinements Early discharges No. % of total No. % of total No. % of hospital confined 1961 4,965 1,618 32.5% 3,347 67.5% 567 16.3% 1966 5,644 1,368 24% 4,296 76% 1,857 38.3% 1969 4,924 676 13.8% 4,248 86.2% 2,274 46% 1970 5,243 579 11% 4,664 89% 2,449 52% 1971 5,014 501 10% 4,513 90% 2,641 59% 1972 5,190 457 8.8% 4,733 91.2% 3,240 68% Although the fall in the number and percentage of patients delivered at home continues, the actual number of patients attended by midwives in 1972 was 3,700, to whom 27,000 visits were paid. Of the 3,240 mothers transferred home early, 324 (10%) were discharged on the first or second day and 2,916 (90%) were discharged between three and seven days. As 10 per cent of mothers are transferred to the community within 48 hours of delivery, it is still essential to have a competent team of midwives on duty to visit and care for these patients and their babies’ needs, as also for the larger percentage discharged between the third and seventh day. Midwives, in their capacity as district nurse/midwives, are now all attached to general practitioners and participate in the care of the ante-natal and post-natal patients in co-operation with their attached general practitioner. During the year the County Council’s proposals under the National Health Service Act for their midwifery service were amended, with the approval of the Department of Health and Social Security, to provide for the domicil¬ iary midwifery work to be covered, in part or in whole, if desired, by the hospital service. This may be useful in certain circumstances and in fact an arrangement to meet an urgent need was by virtue of this amendment able to be made with the West Wilts Hospital Management Committee for staff of the Bradford-on-Avon Maternity Hospital to undertake domiciliary midwifery visiting in a part of the West Wilts nursing area. ♦Statistics in this section exclude the Borough of Swindon.