Midwifery Training at the Cape

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Issue 2, 1 April 1917, Page 113

Midwifery Training at the Cape

In presenting, at a reecnt meeting of the Cape Province Medical Council, the report of a special executive committee on training schools for nurses and midwives, Dr. Mitchell said the committee was satisfied that in seevral of the institutions recognised as training schools for midwives the arrangements and provision for theoretical instruction were inadequate, and considered that the curriculum should in every case include a course of at least twenty-four lectures by medical men. The high cost of training at these institutions (£3O to £45, including board and lodging) must have an effect in excluding suitable women who would otherwise enter. Of

the general hospitals only Kimberley Hospital had organised a maternity section for nurses with general training without special fee; others paid £25. In view of the great need throughout the Union for more trained midwives, it was much to be desired that other public hospitals should follow this admirable example. The midwifery training was also often very unsatisfactory, in view of the fact that the probationers were utilised to do work which brought in considerable fees to the institution. An invitation to matrons and others to make suggestions had not brought aut many responses.