[Report 1923] / Medical Officer of Health, Birkenhead County Borough.
- Birkenhead (England). County Borough Council.
- Date:
- 1923
Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Credit: [Report 1923] / Medical Officer of Health, Birkenhead County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.
101/126 page 91
![Dr. Campbell assigns responsibility primarily to the adequacy or otherwise of the professional attendance during pregnancy, and at the time of birth. “ Often the omission occurs before childbirth; there has been a lack of ante-natal examination and watchfuhiess, and what might have been a conij)aratively simple event becomes one of desperate urgency.” With regard to environmental conditions Dr. Campbell says: “ Insanitai*y surroundings have probably much less direct influence upon puerperal mortality than might be supposed, and although an overcrowded, dirty home must add greatly to the inconveniences of the confinement and the anxieties of the attendant, unless infection is introduced from without it does not appear that a woman who is accustomed to this low standard of living is more prone to develop sepsis after an ordinary confinement than one in a more hygienic dwelling. Operative procedure must necessarily be far more difficult to carry out safely in such surroundings.” ])r. Campbell considers that employment of married women has probably little direct influence upon the maternal death-rate, at any rate as far as the nature of the occupation is concerned. ” The double strain of housework and outside employment, however, may impose too heavy a burden upon the mother.” The inter-dependence of this public health problem with others, which are also the concern of the local and central authorities, is noteworthy. As Dr. Campbell says:—” The care bestowed on the growing child through the school medical service, the gradual disappear- ance of severe rickets, the measures taken to combat venereal diseases, and the improvement in the hygiene of factories and workshops, must tend to secure better health and physique for the adult woman, and enable her to pass through the adventure of pregnancy without detriment. ’ ’](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28927175_0103.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
