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43
Still-births.
Under the Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1926, which
came into operation July 1st, 1927, all still-births require to
be registered within 6 weeks.
23 were notified in this district, 14 male and 9 female.
Infant Mortality.
The Infant Mortality Rate is the number of deaths registered
of infants under one year of age to every 1,000 births during
the year.
The figure is an important index of the standard of healthiness
of a district, owing to the variety of factors involved, and
that these factors are social and personal as well as
mental. Such being the case it is necessary to analyse carefully
these deaths in an attempt to determine how far this rate can be
accepted as a standard of comparison with other districts.
75 deaths of infants under one year of age occurred, giving
an infant mortality rate of 62 as compared with the figure of
69 for the country as a whole.
The rate amongst legitimate children is 61 and illegitimate
107, the corresponding figures for England and Wales being
in 1926, 70 and 130.
It was noted that more males are born usually than females,
whereas the births for the year showed 592 males to 618 females.
The Infant Mortality Rate in general is higher amongst males
than females, being in 1926 in this country 79.15 compared
with 60.88. The fact that there is this slight excess of births
amongst the sex with the lower Infant Mortality Rate will
lower the rate for the district to a small extent.
Similarly when it is realised that the mortality rate amongst
illegitimate infants is practically double that amongst the
legitimate, the fact that the proportion of illegitimate is only
2.1% of total births compared with the figure of 4.07 for 1925
for the country, would account for a slight diminution in the
rate.
Further, the viability of the child varies according to the
age of its parents, particularly the mother, the risk of death
being greater where the mother is very young or elderly. The
age distribution of the population here is such that fewer than
the average proportion of births occur to persons at the extreme
ends of the reproductive ages.