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12
PREVENTION OF INFANTILE MORTALITY.
(1) Care and Feeding of Infants.
In previous Annual Reports I have given details respecting visits and
inquiries made by the Lady Sanitary Inspector, with a view to improving the
health of infants and diminishing the infantile mortality in the Borough. If
thought desirable, instructions are given respecting the care and feeding of the
child and a leaflet left. Babies that are not thriving are periodically weighed.
Notices are also served for any sanitary defects found.
During the year 666 first visits were made. In 51 cases the mothers could
not be traced, most of these being Workhouse cases. In the remaining 615 cases)
8 children did not live long enough to take any food, 13 were partly and 14 entirely
artificially fed, and 553 were breast fed at the time of the first visit, about
a fortnight after birth. A large number of revisits were made, particularly in
the cases of children who were not breast fed, and especially those who were
feeding on modified milk.
(2) Notification of Births Act, 1907.

During the same period 1,273 births were registered.
During the year, Miss Orange made 666 primary visits respecting newlyborn
children. She found that in 642 cases the births had been notified and in only
24 cases not notified. Of the 24 cases not notified, 11 were attended by doctors,
2 .by midwives, 10 by students, and in 1 case the person in attendance on the
mother at the time of the birth could not be ascertained.
I wrote in most cases requesting the reasons for non-notification. From the
doctors I had replies giving reasonable grounds for their not having done so. In