[Report 1951] / Medical Officer of Health, Radnorshire County Council.
- Radnorshire (Wales). County Council.
- Date:
- 1951
Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Credit: [Report 1951] / Medical Officer of Health, Radnorshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![Domiciliary Midwifery. Domiciliary Midwifery like other nursing services is carried out on behalf of the Local Health Authority by the Badnorshire County Nursing Association. The County Nursing Association is affiliated to the Queen’s Institute of District Nursing, and the supervision by the Queen’s Institute of the nursing work carried out by the Association is welcomed, as it helps the Nurses to maintain a high standard of efficiency. One hundred and twenty-seven mothers were confined in their own homes during the year, of whom 45 were maternity cases where the confinement was supervised by a doctor, and 82 were midAufery cases, that is, cases where the confinement was supervised by the Midwife. A.t the end of the year all but one of the mid wives emplo^^ed by the Radnorshire County Nursing Association held certificates of competence to administer analgesia. These Nurses are provided with efficient analgesic machines of the Minnitt and Queen Charlotte Hospital types to administer nitrous oxide. Of the patients whose confinements were supervised by midwives 76 (93%) were given analgesia by the Nurses concerned. This is a very creditable achievement in view of the extremely difficult transport problems in Radnorshire. Some homes are two miles from the nearest road useable by a car, and in such cases the analgesic apparatus has to be carried over fields for considerable distances. Reference is made in a previous page to the large number of confinements now taking place in hospital, allegedly due to unsuitable home^ conditions. Unless steps are taken by the Regional H. spital Board to deal energetically with this ])rub- lem it seems possible that within the next decade the domici- liary midwifery service will be killed. Even now there are scarcely enough domicilitiry confinements to keep the mid- wives concerned in practice. Of the 23 nurses employed by the Radnorshire County Nursing Association, 13 are now living in houses provided for them. We have made progress rec'uitly in this direction as it is an asset when appointing new nurses to be able to offer them suitable accommodation. Moreover, the fact that every nurse has a car to use for her duties is a great inducement to nurses to remain in these somewhat lonely districts especially now when there is such a shortage of nursing statf throughout• the country.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28875059_0023.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
