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In the past few years the causes of infant deaths with the
ages at death have been set out in full to illustrate that the
reduction of the number of infant deaths does not lie any longer
to any extent in the care of the child. This is demonstrated
by the fact that the greatest number of deaths occur in the
first month of life from causes which are attributable to childbirth
or to faults in the infant"s own intrauterine development.
As proof of this fact the 1946 figures are startling in their bias.
All of the infant deaths are neonatal deaths. To allay any
possible suspicion and to give a more balanced picture, it should
perhaps be mentioned that for the two previous years these
deaths have been analysed in this way. In 1945 there were 29
neonatal deaths out of a total of 34 and in 1944 there were 18
out of a total of 33.
As has been said before any serious further economy in
these infant lives can only be effected in the ante-natal and
obstetric departments.
Misgiving has sometimes been expressed about the value
of these weaklings to the community if by further efforts some
of them could be saved. It is only necessary to point out that in
8 of these 28, prematurity is given as a cause of death. It is
difficult to see how the denial of a few further weeks of intrauterine
life by the premature release of a trigger mechanism
which is not understood and which results in childbirth some
weeks earlier than it should occur, can be regarded as evidence
of the ultimate unfitness of the infant for our community.