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INFANT MORTALITY.
The analysis of the infant deaths below and on the next
page shows once more that it is the neo-natal deaths, i.e. deaths
occurring in the first month of life, that contribute largely to
this mortality.
It will be seen that of the 24 deaths in infants, 22 were
neo-natal deaths and the two who survived one month were only
2 months old at death; and in one of these death is due to a
failure in development.
Careful study of these deaths shows that all of them (except
possibly one of the 2 months old infants) are due either to
failures in development or are a result of the hazards of
reproduction.
It will be seen that in 9 of them Prematurity is given as
the cause; this represents 37.5 % of the total infant mortality.
In 4 others intra-cranial injury (damage caused by the mechanics
of birth) is the direct cause of death. These two causes bring
the percentage up to 54%.
With 5 deaths due to congenital deformities or developmental
failures 18 of the 24 deaths (or 75%) are accounted for. This
is 18 of the 22 neo-natal deaths or 82% of them. These 22
neo-natal deaths, together with 14 stillbirths, represent an annual
reproductive loss of 46 per 1,000 births.
A Table is reproduced on page 24 showing the trend of
infant mortality and stillbirth rate for the past 10 years. The
stillbirth rate shows a gratifying decline; we can only hope
that a fall in the neo-natal deaths will enable the infant mortality
graph to follow suit.