[Report 1938] / Medical Officer of Health and School Medical Officer of Health, Southport County Borough.

  • Southport (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1938
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1938] / Medical Officer of Health and School Medical Officer of Health, Southport County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    32/132 (page 30)
    Puerperal Pyrexia.—There were nine notifications received. Four of tlie cases were attributed by the notifying practitioner to Puerperal Fever, and the remainder to other incidental causes. The Puerperal Fever cases occurred as follows :—Maternity Hospital, 1, Nursing Home, 1, District, 1, Home for Unmarried Mothers, 1. All the eases ended satisfactorily. Ophthalmia Neonatorum.—Two notifications only were received. Both \vere very mild cases, which cleared up in a short time, and left no impairment of vision. Maternal Deaths.—There was no death recorded under this heading. One vTich did occur in the Maternity Hospital was of a patient not ordinarily resident in the Borough. Post-Natal Clinic.—Although attention to the general health of motliers has always been an important part of the work of Child Welfare Centres, systematic post-natal examination of those who had been confined without the services of a doctor was not carried out until the opening of a clinic for that ])urpose in September, 1938. The clinic is held at the Health Centre and is in charge of the Medical Officer to the Maternity Hospital, who is also a member of the surgical staff of the Southport Infirmary. During the wrecks that the clinic was held in 1938, 35 patients made 55 attendances. Fifteen of these were normal, three were sent to the Infirmary for operative treatment and 17 had conservative treatment at the clinic. Infantile Mortality.—The rate w^as 69*86. As is usually the case when the birth rate is falling in a district, this shows a slight rise for the last year or two. Still, the main incidence of infant deaths falls on the first month of life, 37 out of the 56 occurred in that period. NOTIFICATION OF BIRTHS. Under Section 203 of the Public Health Act of 1936, 918 bir'ths were notified. Of these, 162 were notified by doctors and 756 by midwives, including 367 hospital cases. There were 43 stillbirths, leaving a total of 875 live births in the area, compared with 905 in the previous year. Health ^TsITING.—With the exception of the Health Visitor who is engaged on tuberculosis work, all nurses employed on the staff of the Central Health Centre, take part in the visiting of infants, and so far as possible, the first visit is carried out within the first three wrecks of life. This early visiting must be regarded as one of the most important parts of the work, so long as the neo-natal mortality remains at its present high level. The visiting of toddlers is also of great importance, and since the ince])tion of the Municipal Midwifery Service, the time which has been saved from Ante-Natal visiting has been largely devoted to this work, which lias also been more systematic. \Tsits paid during the year by all Health Visitors :—■ 1937 1938 To expectant mothers ; First visits. 241 135 Total visits. 1351 694 To children under one year : First visits 870 712 Total visits 6496 6928 To children between the ages of one and five years .Total visits 6972 8144 To boarded-out children . 263 214 To nurse children . 293 388