Admissions and readmissions from district to the special baby-care unit of a maternity hospital.

use of such nurseries varies from hospital to hospital, more especially with regard to the admission of babies born on district and in nursing-homes. Necessarily, policy is influenced to a large extent by the adequacy of alternative facilities available but gives first consideration to the prior claims of babies born in the maternity hospital, of which the paediatric section constitutes an integral part. . This contribution reviews experience gained over a nine-years period in the special baby-care nursery of a maternity hospital in an industrial city. During that period 4,212 newly born babies were admitted to the nursery, of whom 3,434 came from the labour ward or lying-in ward nurseries, and 778 from their own homes, nursing-homes, or other maternity hospitals. With a few exceptions babies admitted from outside were referred by general practitioners and obstetric and paediatric colleagues as in need of urgent hospital care. The exceptions consisted of readmissions numbering 55. A total of 283 babies were admitted from places of birth outside the city boundaries. Distances between 5 and 10 miles (8 and 16 km.), between 10 and 50 miles (16 and 80 km.), and in excess of 50 miles (80 km.) were involved in the case of 167, 105, and 11 respectively. There was no alternative to admission of the 778 babies to the maternity hospital baby-care unit because of the special clinical requirements of the babies and the inadequacy of suitable facilities in the local general hospitals. Infants admitted to the maternity hospital