[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Barnes].

  • Barnes (London, England). Urban District Council.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Barnes]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    33/60 (page 33)
    33 No case of puerperal fever was notified during the year. In this connection some reference may here be made to the local administration of the Midwives' Act. The supervising authority, the Surrey County Council, has delegated its executive powers to the Sanitary Committee of that body. The County Medical Officer of Health is the responsible officer, and the local Medical Officers of Health act under his direction and supervision, and report annually to him. I have during the year repeatedly visited the homes of the registered midwives practising in the district (three in number), and have recently reported at length. The Act works very well here, the midwives attend between them about half the births, and no difficulties have arisen. In my opinion it is in every way desirable that women of the poorer classes should be primarily attended by registered midwives, and that the function of medical men, in respect of this class of practice, should be consultative only. Severe cases of puerperal fever amongst the poorer class of parturients arise far more frequently when attendance is by a doctor and untrained nurse than when the attendant is a registered midwife. A study of Table I. shows that the total number of deaths registered in the district during 1908 was only 213, the smallest number since 1901, when the ascertained population was 17,821. As this number—213—includes ten or twelve deaths regis tered in the district really not belonging to the district—cases of persons whose bodies were recovered from the river, or found on the railway lines—it is obvious that our death-rate has fallen greatly.