[Report 1934] / Medical Officer of Health, East Suffolk County Council.

  • East Suffolk (England). County Council.
Date:
1934
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1934] / Medical Officer of Health, East Suffolk County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    41/112 (page 39)
    This year I have analysed the calls of the County midwives with the following results :— Nurse. No. of cases taken. No. of calls made for medical help. A. 48 5 B. 35 10 C. 30 6 I). 99 tmJ 9 E. 21 6 J R 19 7 ) F. 19 7 G. 18 5 H. 16 7 it 14 7 14 7 14 5 •J- 13 15 K. 12 8 iK- ( K. 12 8 12 5 1 L- 11 4 1 L- 11 3 M. 10 6 N. 9 8 O. 8 4 P. 6 5 Q. 5 3 * Some calls were for child as well as mother. It is only those midwives that have conducted a number of confine- ments who are included in this list. As I anticipated the calls for help depend very considerably upon the midwife herself. It can hardly be a question of chance that one midwife has undertaken 48 cases and has only called a doctor in upon five occasions, while another midwife has had 13 cases and has called in medical help on 15 occasions. These figures will be more instructive next year for if some constancy is maintained between the two years my theory will be strengthened. It is an advantage to discover the reasons for the issue of the calls for medical help and I give the groups of conditions for which the largest number of calls have been made :— Ruptured perineum .... .... .... 72 Haemorrhage during pregnancy .... 32 Prolonged 2nd stage .... .... .... 31 Illness of Infant .... .... .... 27 Miscarriage .... .... .... .... 14 Rise of temperature .... .... .... 14 Inflamed eyes of infant .... .... 12 Inflamed leg .... .... .... .... 10 I have not previously received these particulars and, without others for comparison, they lose some of their value. It is the call for the prolonged second stage that will, I think, be inclined to mount. Ad- vancing civilisation is accompanied by a loss of tolerance to pain, and as anaesthesia undoubtedly lessens the pangs of childbirth, this relief will as time goes by, be more frequently insisted upon and applied. The disturbance of a normal function will bring in its train increasing risks to the life of mother and child.