§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what action he is taking to increase the diagnosis and treatment of infection in pregnancy; and if he will make a statement.
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§ Mr. Moyle:Doctors are already aware of the need to identify and treat infections in pregnancy. The Memorandum on Maternal Care, issued to general practitioners, stresses the importance of taking a full medical history and of undertaking careful examinations. Specific tests for bacteriuria, syphilis and tuberculosis are recommended, and the memorandum points out the opportunity given by antenatal examination to take a cervical smear; this will enable vaginal infections not already diagnosed by examination to be identified. In addition, my Department recommends that all women of child-bearing age should be tested for rubella antibodies and that, if found to be susceptible to rubella, they should be vaccinated. This aims to protect women against rubella before they become pregnant but any woman found to be unprotected during her pregnancy would be vaccinated as soon as possible after it is over.
§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what trials of drugs which will delay birth are being undertaken in the United Kingdom; and if he will make a statement;
(2) what trials are being undertaken in the United Kingdom of the value of cerclage operations or the use of a ring-pessary in the treatment of cervical incompetence; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Moyle:Research currently being supported by the Medical Research Council with funds transferred from my Department includes (i) a programme on the endocrine control of myometrial contractility with special reference to parturition and (ii) a project to study the effects on the foetus and its post-natal development of obstetric procedures with special reference to methods employed to induce or inhibit the onset of labour. My Department's Reproduction and Allied Services Research Liaison Group has endorsed the suggestion of the Working Party on Infant and Perinatal Mortality and Morbidity for (i) a clinical trial of the effectiveness of cervical suture in patients with a past history of midtrimester abortions or terminations of pregnancy (ii) hormone studies of plasma 17 beta cestradiol and progesterone in certain high-risk groups and (iii) a randomised, controlled multi-centre trial of the various 290W commonly used and new myometrial depressants.
§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will mount a specific publicity campaign to encourage early reporting of pregnancy to a doctor; and if he will reconsider the introduction of payment of a special grant to women who do so, in line with French and Finnish practice.
§ Mr. Moyle:We are deeply concerned about the 20 per cent. of women who fail to report their pregnancy by the sixteenth week. My right hon. Friend is holding a conference, full details of which he will announce later, in the spring of next year, to consider ways of improving the take-up of antenatal services. I outlined the reasons for my reservations about linking grants or benefits to clinic attendance in my reply to my hon. Friend on 28th June —[Vol. 934, c. 147–8]—and I still regard these as valid.