[Report 1934] / Medical Officer of Health, Manchester City.

  • Manchester (England). City Council. n 88637066.
Date:
1934
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1934] / Medical Officer of Health, Manchester City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    201/372 page 197
    (iv.) Cases in which there is some unsatisfactory condition of mother or baby at the end of the ten-day lying-in period which requires further nursing, e.g., inflamed veins, premature baby. (b) Cases from Doctors.—An offer of skilled nursing is made to every practitioner who notifies a case under the Puerperal Fever, Pyrexia, or Pemphigus Neonatorum Regulations. The nurse then works under the direction of the patient’s own doctor. (c) Health Visitors' Cases.—The nurse visits because the health visitor reports some abnormal condition of mother or baby, such as cracked nipples, prematurity, or insufficient breast milk. (d) Maternity and Child Welfare Clinics.—The doctor at the clinic asks to have a baby treated for some condition, such as an unhealed umbilicus. A large number of cases for re-establishment of breast feeding come from the clinics. The visits paid by the nurses under the above headings in 1934 were as follows:—- Number of Visits Puerperal Fever, Puerperal Pyrexia, Raised Temperature .. 743 Mammary Abscess and Mastitis. 787 Phlebitis. 66 Mother still unsatisfactory at end of lying-in period .... 92 Pemphigus Neonatorum and other skin conditions .. .. 1,362 Septic and unsatisfactory umbilicus. 2,246 Spina Bifida . 71 Prematurity of Infant. 1,265 .Promotion and re-establishment of breast-feeding. 726 Unsatisfactory infants. 105 7,463 Artificial Feeding.—71 notifications of recourse to artificial feeding were received from midwives. In 24 cases the reason given was the scanty secretion of milk, and in 10 cases it was resorted to by the doctor’s orders. Of the remaining 37, in 12 instances the reason given was illness of the mother, in 2 cases because the baby was to be later separated from its mother, and in 6 cases the mother did not wish and could not be persuaded to feed the baby. Every case is visited in the first instance by the Health Visitor, who refers it to a special maternity nurse if it is thought that there is any chance of promoting or re-establishing breast-feeding. Of the 74 cases taken by the nurses, 28 were successful and 6 partly successful.
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