MINQRITY REPORT. 
39217 
for insured women of a scheme of comprehensive provision of all 
services required from the time that the woman is first known to 
be pregnant to the time when she has recovered from the effects 
of confinement and such schemes have . . . . been con- 
sidered by . . . . the Department, and discussed with 
representatives of the medical profession. As regards the 
uninsured wives of insured men, the difficulty of including this 
class . . . . arises from the fact that in their case there is 
at present no provision of general practitioner services such as are 
afforded by medical benefit.” (Maclachlan Q. 24,159.) 
105. The high maternal death rate and the great amount of 
sickness amongst mothers clearly prove the need of reorganisation 
and extension of maternity work. Witnesses directed our 
attention to the Annual Report of the Chief Medical Officer to 
the Ministry of Health, in which it is shown that 2,847 women 
died in childbirth in 1924, and that there has been no diminution 
of the maternal mortality rate for the whole of the period since 
the Act.came into operation. 
106. In no fewer than three recent publications of the Ministry 
of Health, viz., the Annual Report of the Chief Medical Officer 
for 1924, °° Public Education in Health,” and ‘° Maternal 
Mortality,”” it is made abundantly clear that ‘‘ much of this 
maternal mortality and sickness could be prevented by proper 
supervision of the expectant mother ; >’ that ** avoidable maternal 
deaths are a matter of everyday occurrence,” and that ‘if a 
woman can rely upon securing the services of a careful, up-to- 
date practitioner, or upon the attendance of a well-trained mid- 
wife, who is able to obtain prompt and competent medical 
assistance in case of need, nearly all other conditions become of 
minor importance.’’ 
107. The close connexion between the absence of adequate 
services during pregnancy and at confinement, and the heavy 
incidence of sickness among married women was referred to by 
witnesses (National Association of Trade Union Approved 
Societies, Q. 22,057; Standing Joint Committee of Industrial 
Women’s Organisations, Q 28,027; Maclachlan, Q 24,226) and 
may be best illustrated by the following quotation from Sir 
George Newman’s preface to °° Maternal Mortality :”’— 
“ Returns reveal only part of the damage done. An incalculable 
amount of unreported and often untreated injury and ill-health 
results from pregnancy and labour,” and *‘ 3,000 mothers a year 
die and tens of thousands of young mothers are unnecessarily 
damaged or invalided every year. (Public Education in Health.) 
There is also a close connexion between the absence of adequate 
services for expectant mothers and the infant mortality rate. 
While the death rate of infants under the age of one year is about 
one-half that of 25 years ago, the death rate of infants up to 
4 weeks old is 33 per 1,000 births in 1924 against 38 per 1,000 
births in 1912 (the commencement of the Act).