[Report 1942] / Sanitary Committee [- Medical Officer of Health], Cornwall County Council.

  • Cornwall (England). County Council.
Date:
1942
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1942] / Sanitary Committee [- Medical Officer of Health], Cornwall County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    26/46 (page 24)
    is in the same building as the Home itself) and a considerable number of motliers entered these hostels a short time before their expected date of delivery. Ante-natal hostel accommodation is of great value in a rural county like Cornwall, where distances are considerable and transport not readily obtainable (quite apart from war conditions) on account of paucity of communications; ^is is particularly the case where a patient has had children previously and where time may be short. The County Obstetrician visits each Home amd Hostel weekly, when he is able to exercise general su(^crvnsion of the patients; in addition, he conducts on these occasions an ante-natal clinic. It will be seen that during tlie year a total of 791 births took place in the County Council’s institutional accommodation at the Maternity Ward and the Emergency Maternity Homes. Of the 315 births in the Homes at Bodmin and Hayle approximately 24% were official evacuees; at Looe the great majority of cases were evacuated from Plymouth. Those not evacuees were Cornish cases admitted for bad home conditions, the circumstances being investigated by a Health Visitor before acceptance in each case. The number of these cases showed a marked increase during the year. Other Maternity Beds. In the Institutions transferred to the County Council under the Local Government Act, 1929, there are 14 maternity beds, to which 48 women were admitted during the year, 36 being delivered by mid wives and 8 by Doctors. Rosemundy Home, 19 beds, for unmarried girls, is maintained by the Cornwall Preventive and Rescue Association. The girls are usually retained for one year. “ Flying Squad.” On three occasions the County Obstetrician, together with a nurse, visited in their homes maternity patients who were gravely ill and unable on that account to be moved; in two cases (both of which recovered) blood transfusion was given for post-partum haemorrhage. Consultants. A second opinion was obtained by medical practitionets for 20 patients under the Council’s scheme, in addition to consultations with the County Obstetrician. Ante-Natal and Post-Natal Services. The Council have a scheme under which a midwife may arrange with a medical practitioner for ante-natal and post-natal examinations of her patients, and 1,170 such examinations were made during 1942. Arrangements are made for two ante-natal and one post- natal examinations. Ante-Natal Clinics. In March the Council took the very important step - of providing ante-natal clinics, these being intended as consultative centres to which practitioners may refer abnormal cases for the opinion of the County Obstetrician; in addition, ante-natal supervision is provided at the clinics for cases booked to go into the Council’s maternity accommodation. Since March 1942, Clinics were held each week at St. Austell, Bodmin, Hayle, Launceston, Liskeard, Looe, Newquay and Redruth. These clinics constitute a great step forward in the field of preventive medicine and should be considered as having a very definite bearing on the maternal mortality and on the ill-health and disability which may follow childbirth.