14.8 
MAJORITY REPORT. 
entitled to free attendance by a doctor or certified mid- 
wife. No mistake of the medical adviser in estimating 
the date of confinement shall preclude a woman from 
receiving these benefits from the date of the medical 
certificate up to the date on which the confinement 
actually takes place. 
““ (dy Shall in any case, if she is nursing her child, 
be allowed half an hour twice a day during her working 
hours for this purpose.’ 
333. The witnesses urged that this Convention should serve 
as a model in considering the provision to be made for maternity 
in this country. We would point out, however, that the Con- 
vention is confined to women who are themselves engaged in 
industrial or commercial employment, while under the Health 
Insurance Scheme we have to consider not only these women 
but also those in domestic employment, and the vastly greater 
number of women who are not themselves employed but are the 
wives of insured men. As we shall show, our problem is an 
essentially different one from that which was before the framers 
of the Washington Convention. 
CHARACTER OF MATERNITY BENEFIT. 
334. Both the Washington Convention and the Maternity and 
Child Welfare Schemes suggest to us that maternity benefit 
must in the present state of thought be considered in close con- 
nexion with the wider question of the provision to be made for 
women immediately before, during, and immediately after child- 
birth. It is not so much the money payment that is of 
importance as the question of taking steps to secure that every 
woman receives proper attention from doctor or midwife in suit- 
able surroundings during a reasonable period centred on the con- 
finement. In other words the character of the benefit should 
change from * cash’’ to *‘ health’ and it should be linked up 
with the other related health services. This is not to say that 
there should be no cash payment at the time of confinement. 
Such a payment is undoubtedly of value and will be utilised 
wisely by most mothers; but other elements must. we think, 
eventually be introduced. 
335. The existence side by side of the maternity benefit under 
the Insurance Scheme, the arrangements made under the 
Maternity and Child Welfare Schemes, and the provision under 
the Poor Taw illustrates the variety which characterises the 
existing National Health arrangements to which we have 
adverted elsewhere. In this instance we have three inde- 
pendent authorties administering in the same area schemes 
governed by different social and financial principles, but 
all attempting to solve the same problem—the assistance of the