Mrs. Patonasked the Minister of Health what percentage of hospital and domiciliary midwives in the county of Nottingham are trained in the use of analgesia; and what percentage of women desiring analgesia are able to receive it.
230W
§ Mr. BevanNinety-five per cent. of the domiciliary midwives and 49 per cent. of the hospital midwives are so trained. I regret that the other information asked for, which depends upon the medical and other circumstances of the individual cases, is not available. But the number of domiliciary cases in which analgesia was used by midwives in the last six months of 1948 was equivalent to 28 per cent. of the domiciliary confinements of which they were in charge, and analgesia or anaesthesia would be given in a high proportion of the hospital confinements and of the domiciliary confinements of which doctors were in charge.