Annual report : 1929 / Society of the Lying-in Hospital of the City of New York.
- Society for the Lying-In Hospital
- Date:
- 1929
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Annual report : 1929 / Society of the Lying-in Hospital of the City of New York. Source: Wellcome Collection.
14/82 page 10
![process for the mother and baby. In a few cases we have patients who know nothing of their labor from within a few minutes after medication has begun and yet delivery goes on undelayed. Thousands have received great relief and in no instance have we met with unfavorable results which could be attributed to the use of analgesia. We have our full share of complicated cases, many of whom require radical and operative treatment; that some die is inevitable, but many recover. Dur¬ ing the past year there have been an unusual number of cases complicated by badly damaged hearts; a large proportion of these, although desperately ill, have been carried through, to ultimate obstetric recovery. The premature nursery is worthy of note. The percentage of loss of these infants has been materially diminished, and more of them, developed sufficiently to give promise of surviving, are saved. Mainly this result is obtained by the plan of the nursery, its cribs, method of safely maintaining a proper temperature, circulating fresh air and the general care and method of feeding. No small factor is the devoted care given by attendants who spend their whole working time in this service and are not changed about from place to place at short intervals. It is now forty years since the work of the out-door depart¬ ment began under an organization known as the Midwifery Dispensary. During the first year—1890, it confined 199 women in their homes, the second year 955, and when it merged with the Society of the Lying-In Hospital in 1893, there were records of something over 2600 confinements. At the time of the merger, the older organization gave its name, charter, board of governors and a considerable much needed fund. Thus far we have not been able to learn that the Lying-In Hospital did any obstetrical work or had a medical staff from the time that relations were severed between it and the New York Hospital; nor, are we able to find authentic record that New York Hospital treated mater¬ nity cases or was affiliated with any other organization which did this work after the dissolution of the arrangement between it and the Lying-In. The Midwifery Dispensary, as its part of the combination, supplied a going organization with an active attend¬ ing, consulting and resident staff, pupils and a rapidly increasing [10]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31710943_0014.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
