Training and Provision of Midwives
The provision of additional trained midwives is a pressing problem. The increased cost of living, longer training required, and the rapid development of less laborious and more lucrative occupations, have made it difficult to secure women to train as midwives, or to continue to practise in this capacity after qualification. In many industrial areas the older bonâ fide midwife is preferred, although it is the almost universal experience that the trained midwife more quickly detects conditions endangering the life of the mother or infant, and sends for medical help. In order to encourage further the supply of practising midwives, the government gives grants for increased remuneration to midwives newly appointed by local authorities, sufficient to recoup them in the course of a few years’ service for the cost of their training.
At a recent date, of some 30,543 trained midwives on the Roll, only 6,754 were returned as being in actual practice as such.
In order to make midwives available for all women needing them, the Board repays to local authorities and voluntary associations half the cost of the provision of a midwife for necessitous women. During the Great War a woman might receive assistance in her confinement from several central sources; for in addition to the above
(1) If she was the wife of an insured person, or if she
herself is insured, she received under the conditions
of the National (Health) Insurance Act
30s. in cash, or if she is insured and the wife of
an insured person 60s. in cash.
(2) If she was the wife of a soldier or sailor and not