Maternal mortality report
1934-10 1934 1930s 19 pages natal) clinics started with small beginnings, but thanks to the co-operation of the midwives the attendances are rapidly increasing and the accommodation is often insufficient." As in previous years we observe that attendance at clinics and interest in them is i...
| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
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| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
London : The Maternal Mortality Committee
October 1934
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/682C25BB-7395-4FAF-99E0-02F56BC4EF5E http://hdl.handle.net/10796/E09261E7-6BC0-4B06-954C-69F9C94C810A |
| Summary: | 1934-10
1934
1930s
19 pages
natal) clinics started with small beginnings, but thanks to the co-operation of the midwives the attendances are rapidly increasing and the accommodation is often insufficient." As in previous years we observe that attendance at clinics and interest in them is in proportion to the efficiency with which they are run. Milk and Food for Expectant and Nursing Mothers In analysing the reports it has been noted that in many districts the unimpaired health of infants during these times of depression is mentioned, but the same is not said of the mothers. Indeed the County Medical Officer for Monmouthshire says : "Among the mothers there is some evidence of under-nourishment, and many show obvious signs of the depression." Dr. V. de A. Redwood, Medical Officer of the Rhymney Urban District, says : "Compared with normal times, in my opinion there is a considerable amount of under-nourishment in mothers, more than in infants, due to unemployment, working short time, and shortage of money in the home due to illness, delay in payment of compensation after injury, &c." The Medical Officer for Merionethshire notes that, "It is to be regretted that so many of the babies have to be artificially fed ; this, in many instances, is due to the fact that the mothers are insufficiently nourished, owing to the bad economic conditions." The Medical Officer for Smethwick notes that the "standard of midwifery practice in Smethwick is definitely improving and the supervision of midwives is more close and exacting. There is no doubt that the women are suffering from the results of the industrial depression and its effects seem, in Smethwick at any rate, to be bearing very hardly upon the expectant mothers." He also says : "The poorer classes in Smethwick to-day (as in most other towns) are consuming insufficient of the basic articles of diet, and too high a proportion of those types of foods which are poor from a dietetic point of view. The consumption of milk, the best and one of the cheapest foods, is deplorably low, especially among children and expectant and nursing mothers. First class proteins and fats, such as fish, eggs and butter are being used less, and their place taken by second class foods, with an unduly high starch content. There is too much bread and margarine in the diet to-day ... I attribute a considerable proportion of these deaths to poor nutrition on the part of the mother. It is probable that when economic circumstances are at their worst, the mother denies herself the necessities of life to improve the lot of her husband or children, and when in addition to her ordinary life she is bearing another child, her misguided unselfishness is having deleterious effects upon two valuable lives. The result is that she is weakened, is less able to resist the strain (14)
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |