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33
Preventive Methods.
To cure a disease you must first find the cause. I have
tried to indicate in the previous chapter the principal conditions
which are associated with a high infant death-rate. The first
of these is concerned with the physical well-being of the mother,
and is, consequently, a social and economic problem of the first
magnitude, towards which there are indications that the State
is turning its attention. There can be little doubt but that a
considerable proportion of the deaths of infants are due to
industrial necessities, and that the employment of married
women in factories is responsible for many of the deaths from
prematurity and allied conditions. The recent conference on
infantile mortality devoted a good deal of attention to this
aspect of the question, and passed a resolution demanding an
amendment of the present Factory and Workshops Act, to
extend the period during which a factory or workshop shall not
"knowingly" employ a woman within four weeks after childbirth,
to three months. It is clear, therefore, that measures
which have for their object the physical welfare of the mothers
must of necessity tend to raise the standard of motherhood, and
thereby diminish the infantile mortality of the nation.
The methods adopted in Battersea for the prevention of
infantile mortality, in addition to general sanitary administration,
are the employment of :—
1. Health Visitors.
2. Infants' Milk Depot.
The object of the visits of the Lady Sanitary Inspector,
part of whose time is taken up in this manner, is to secure by
improved infant management the health of the babies. Ignorance
of the mother, unfortunately, is largely responsible for a
high death-rate amongst infants, and this is only to be combated
by education. The large number of deaths of infants
which result from lung disease, brought about by exposure,
and which are largely preventable, can only be attributed to