24 AUGUST 1945, Page 12

MIDWIFERY AND QUEEN'S NURSES

STR,—I feel sure readers of The Spectator will be interested and pleased to be this year again acquainted with this subject. At a recent meeting of the council of the Queen's .Institute of District Nursing members received the report of the midwifery work undertaken in 1944 by the 4,253 midwives working in connection with the Institute. The maternal mortality rate was shown to be a bare I per i,000 live births, which Was an outstanding record, more especially in view of the fact that 85,153 cases had been attended. It is interesting to note that these cases- include all women who booked with the midwives whether subsequently put under the care of a doctor or transferred to hospital.

In addition to the figures given above, the midwives working in con- neetion'with the Queen's Iristitute'of District Nursing attended a further 44,545 cases, acting as maternity nurses with a doctor in attendance, the material mortality rate being 1.28 per 5,000 live bittlis. This magnificent result has been achieved during a most difficult year, and is not only a tribute-to the efficiency and devotion of the midwifery staff, often working 'under difficult conditions and in vulnerable areas, but-is also a demonstra- tion of the essential soundness of the Institute's scheme of training for _domiciliary maternity service.

' When the time comes' fcir fhe great- subject' of dothiciliary nursing 'to be seriously faced by the Ministry of Health, as come it must, it is felt that the system 'developed by the Queen's Ihstitute of 'District Nursing might well be officially accepted as the model to be followed in estab- lishing the national service of both sick nursing and midwifery.—Yours

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