MIDWIVES (SCOTLAND) BILL. (Hansard, 8 December 1915)

THE LORD PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL (THE MARQUESS OF CREWE)

My Lords, this Bill has passed through all its stages in another place. Its purpose is to secure the better training of midwives in Scotland and to regulate their practice. The last two Bills that have been considered by your Lordships were described by my noble and learned friend on the Woolsack as war measures. That claim in one sense cannot be advanced for this Bill, as indeed its title sufficiently indicates, and also because it is in fact an identical Bill to that which my noble friend opposite (Lord Balfour) introduced into the House last year. My noble friend's Bill went through this House and passed several of its stages in another place, but it was not found possible to proceed with it.

In one sense, however, this Bill may be regarded as a war measure in the present circumstances. It clearly would not be right to say that the terrible wastage of life which is taking place in the war is a reason for conserving to the utmost all the new lives that come into the world. That is always a duty, and nothing has been more shocking than the excess of infantile mortality throughout the country for many years past. But it is reasonable to say that the loss of life among the citizens of the United Kingdom due to the war has brought home to many who might not before have considered the subject deeply the need of the full preservation of the new lives that come into the world. And, more than that, there is this close connection with the circumstances of the war, that those circumstances have brought about the absence from their duties of a large number of medical men who in ordinary times supervise the birth of children in Scotland as in other parts of 570 the kingdom, and even more there is a special application of this fact to Scotland in that in the remoter and less populous districts in the Highlands and in the Islands, where the population is exceedingly scattered, the diminution in the number of available doctors causes a special and excessive difficulty in this particular respect. Therefore we are entitled, I think, to claim that this is in its essence an urgent and, even if you like to call it so, a war measure; and in that respect, and also in the respect that it is altogether in its essence uncontroversial, it is one which I may properly ask your Lordships to read a second time.

A similar measure, the passage of which through this House I have no doubt many of your Lordships will remember, has applied to England for now close on thirteen years, and its operations have been by common consent exceedingly successful. A great deal has been done to relieve the lot of many poor women in their confinement, and the standard of midwifery has been sensibly raised throughout England during that period. It is therefore very natural, as I am quite sure my noble friend opposite will agree, that a similar demand should exist in Scotland for a like measure.

The only respects in which this Bill differs from the English Act are in certain modifications due to the different conditions which obtain in Scotland. I do not know whether there is likely to be a desire to propose any minor changes or amendments in the Bill as it now stands. The Bill, as the English Act did, gives a moratorium—if that is the proper word—of seven years during winch women who have been performing these duties hitherto, some no doubt well skilled, others less skilled, may continue without incurring any penalty to perform those duties. It clearly would be hard on those who live in poor districts if an abrupt change were made forbidding the employment of women who have been practising for many years past. But after this period those who have not obtained the certificate will be subject to a penalty, as they are in England. There is a provision in the second subsection of the first clause which reads thus— From and after the first day of January, one thousand nine hundred and twenty-two— 571 that is when the Act comes into full operation— no woman shall habitually and for gain attend women in child-birth otherwise than under the direction of a registered medical practitioner unless she be certified under this Act. I understand that strong objection has been taken in quarters which it is impossible not to respect to the words "habitually and for gain," it being held that the use of those words might lead to doubt and confusion on questions of fact and that the Bill would read better without them. If I find that any noble Lord desires to suggest the deletion of those four words, we should be prepared favourably to consider such an Amendment. I do not think that the House would desire that I should go into any close examination of the terms of the Bill, because in all essential respects it resembles the Act now in existence for England. I will therefore, without further preface, ask your Lordships to give it a Second Reading.

LORD BALFOUR OF BURLEIGH

My Lords, I desire to give a very cordial welcome to this Bill, and I am glad to find that it is now under the œgis and has the full co-operation of the Government. The noble Marquess has stated quite accurately that this Bill is almost verbally the same as the Bill which your Lordships passed with unanimity last year, and which would have become law in the last session of Parliament but for a slight, and as I think an unfortunate, misunderstanding in another place. This Bill has the ardent support of all the Medical Faculties of the Universities of Scotland, of the Royal Medical Corporation, and of all the medical officers of the Maternity Hospitals in Scotland. Those officers got up a memorial to the Government after the failure of the Bill last session urging that legislation should be undertaken, and they asked my advice as to whether it would not be wise to reintroduce the Bill in this House. The advice I gave was that as this House had passed the previous Bill with unanimity last session it should be introduced in another place. That course has been taken, and I believe the Bill was passed there practically with unanimity, and I sincerely hope that it will be passed without delay by your Lordships' House.

572 Beyond all question a situation of some urgency has arisen, as the noble Marquess has stated, out of the conditions under which we are living at the present time. A large number of the medical practitioners have been called away for war service, and a large amount of midwifery practice will, but for this Bill, be liable to get into the hands of unqualified persons. I do not think I need say anything more in support of the Bill, but with regard to one remark which the noble Marquess made at the end of his speech as to whether the words he quoted from the end of the second subsection of Clause 1 of the Bill should be omitted, I should like to say this. Personally I think the Bill would be better without those words, but I do not think it is a matter of first-rate importance and I would sooner have the Bill passed with those words in than run any risk of any misunderstanding similar to what happened last year by their omission in this House. It was around those words that a good deal of misconception and misunderstanding occurred in the other House last year, and I think it would be better to pass the Bill with those words in unless their deletion is agreed to with the unanimous concurrence of every one.