Report on confidential enquiries into maternal deaths in England and Wales, 1964-1966 / by Humphrey Arthure [and others].

Date:
1969
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Report on confidential enquiries into maternal deaths in England and Wales, 1964-1966 / by Humphrey Arthure [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    special care from doctors and midwives. The identification of increasing age irrespective of parity as a factor associated with death from pulmonary embolism may help to throw light on an intractable problem and suggest the type of patient who requires special observation. Dal Despite the acknowledged usefulness of the maternal mortality enquiry and the published reports, the 1964-66 enquiry included only 86 per cent of the deaths directly due to pregnancy and childbirth. At the same time it included 10.7 per cent more deaths than those known to the Registrar General as not directly due to but associated with pregnancy and childbirth; yet comparison of enquiry forms with death certificates showed that 41 associated deaths known to the Registrar General were missing from the enquiry. A medical officer of health cannot initiate the enquiry into a maternal death unless he is either told of its occurrence locally or is informed by the Registrar General’s staff who depend for their information on death certificates or on additional confidential letters to the Registrar General. Most of the women whose deaths are either due to or associated with pregnancy are admitted to hospital before death. Latterly we have received much help from the Society of Coroners. This enquiry is unique in British medicine in its systematic appraisal of the results of medical work. It must be given some of the credit for the improvement achieved. For that I record our indebtedness to obstetricians, midwives, general practiticners and medical officers of health and especially to the Regional Assessors and Consultant Advisers who do most of the work. G. E. GODBER, Chief Medical Officer Ministry of Health London July 1968