View report page

33
mortality. The object of the inquiry was to keep a number of children
under observation during the first twelve months of life, with a view to
ascertain, among other things, how the infants of mothers employed
industrially compared with those of mothers not fo employed. The
inquiry was prosecuted in a large number of districts, under the direction
of the respective Medical Officers of Health, and the results forwarded to
the Home Office to be collated and published in a complete form. The
Home Office has not yet issued the complete results, but those of a
considerable number of districts have been published separately by the
Medical Officers of Health concerned, and it may be useful to give the
experience of Hampstead.
The visits in connection with the inquiry were made by Mrs. Fisher,
and the number of infants visited was 270, but owing to removals from
Ilampstead it was found impracticable to keep more than 202 under
observation for a whole year. The infants were all born in 1908, but
as each child was supervised for a year the inquiry was not concluded
until the end of 1909, and owing to pressure of other woik it was not
possible to prepare the results for publication in time for the Annual
Report for the year 1909. Care was taKen to ensure that the mothers
dealt with should be of the same class and circumstances, and the inquiry
was therefore limited to the following streets:—Netherwood Street,
Palmcrston Road, Linstead Street, Loveridge Road, Lowfield Road
Ivelson Street, Ravenshaw Street, Broomslcigh Street, Fleet Road, and
the northern end of Upper Park Road, together with a few of the mews
in the poorer parts of the Borough.
The number of infants whose mothers were industrially employed
was 83; 10 mothers were employed at home, 6 in factories or workshops,
and 61 elsewhere—chiefly as charwomen. The number of infants of
mothers not industrially employed was 119. Of the 83 infants whose
mothers were industrially employed 0 died before completing the first
year of life: this is equivalent to an infantile mortality rate of 72 per
1000 births. Of the 119 infants whose mothers were not industrially
employed 16 died in infancy: equivalent to an infantile mortality of 133
per 1000 births. The infantile mortality among the wage-earning
mothers was little more than one-half of that of the mothers not
industrially employed.
The total number of infants concerned in the inquiry in Ilampstead
is small, and therefore the mortality rates must be received with caution