to supply milk and food and an extra
ration under the Food Controller’s Order. In
addition, after confinement she had available
the ration apportioned to the infant and its
allowance of milk under the priority scheme.
There was evidently need for simplification and unification of effort in the above cases.
In many instances maternity nursing is required. The midwife may have too many patients to be able to give this during the ten days in which she is in charge of the patient; and even when she carries out her duty in this respect in accordance with the Rules of the Central Midwives Board additional help is required in the feeding and care of the mother and infant, and in the care of the household. Often also nursing is required for both mother and infant for a considerable period beyond the ten days. For these persons the government gives grants for maternity nursing and for “home helps.”
Even when all the above requirements are or can be fulfilled, there remain a large number of cases of pregnant women, and especially of unmarried women, who cannot be satisfactorily confined at home, either because of their social or sanitary circumstances, or because abnormal or complicated childbirth is expected. For such cases hospital provision is needed. This is one of the most urgent requirements of the present time.
Under present conditions, institutional lying-in provision is chiefly voluntary in character; and the government has advised local authorities to contract for its use, rather than wait for the erection of special hospitals. In other instances houses are being taken and adapted as maternity homes.