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The notifications, therefore, formed 87 per cent, of the total live
births of Chelsea residents registered in the Borough, as compared with
100 per cent, in 1919, 89 per cent, in 1918, 98 per cent, in 1917, and
91 per cent, in each of the years 1915 and 1916.
The number of births notified by midwives in 1920 was 42 per cent,
of the total, as against 46 per cent, in 1919.
Illegitimate Births.
Total number of illegitimate births 84
Alive at end of year 59
Dead at end of year 8
Unaccounted for 17
Maternity and Child Welfare.
There were 73 deaths of infants under one year of age in Chelsea
in 1920, equivalent to an Infant Mortality Rate of 52 per 1,000
Births. This is the lowest rate ever recorded in the Borough. The
rates in recent years have been as follows :—1919, 87; 1918, 91;
1917, 82 ; 1916, 91 ; 1915, 100 ; 1914, 67. The rate of 52 is only about
one-third of the rate prevailing in Chelsea prior to 1905, when the first
attempt was made to control infantile mortality by the appointment of
a woman health officer. In London, in 1920, the rate of Infant Mortality
was 75, and in England and Wales the rate was 80. The low rates of
Infant Mortality in 1920 are in part due to the absence of extreme
temperatures in that year, both in summer and winter, and to the very
slight prevalences of such diseases as measles, whooping cough, infantile
diarrhoea, influenza, bronchitis, and pneumonia, which always have,
when prevalent, such serious results for infants.
The following tabular statement gives an outline of the work carried
on in Chelsea during 1920 (53 weeks), the visits being those paid by the
trained officers of the Borough Council (one whole-time Health Visitor,
one part-time), and the Chelsea Health Society and School for Mothers
(one whole-time officer), and does not include work done by voluntary
workers attached to the Society.