"A BAD CASE"

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 58, 9 March 1923, Page 3

"A BAD CASE"

UNLAWFULLY PRACTISING AS MIDWIFE. An unusual class of summons case was called at the Magistrate's Court to-day, before Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., when a middle-aged -woman named Elizabeth Watson appeared on a charge of having unlawfully practised as a midwife. Sub-Inspector Cuminings, who conducted the prosecution, said that the . defendant had been called to attend a patient on 10th December. She was not a registered midwifo and did not have a doctor in attendance. The defendant left ten days after i the confinement and received £5, the sum agreed upon previously. The third day after the accused left, the patient developed septicaemia and a doctor had to be called in. . ' The Magistrate: "The very mischief that .this Act is designed to prevent." ' The Sub-Inspector: "I understand that she has been practising for about 25 years. Sometimes she called a doctor and sometimes she didn't." ' The Magistrate: "Oh, yes, I know. They make a contract. 'If Ido without a doctor you give me half the doctor's fee.' " ) Appearing for the defendant, Mr. R. Foden said that his client usually called in a doctor, but in this case, it was at the request of the patient that no medical man was in attendance. The accused had practised for twenty-five years, but was a maternity nurso, not a midwife. It was unfortunate that the result had been so serious, but this might have happened, even had the doctor been there. His Worship: "The case is a very bad one. There is no necessity for this kind of thing in the town—there might have , been some excuse in the country. How- [ over, she pleaded guilty. Fined £10 and costs."