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Maternity and Child Welfare.
There were 56 deaths of infants under one year of age in Chelsea
in 1923, equivalent to an Infant Mortality Rate of 58 per 1,000
Births, as compared with 66 per 1,000 in 1922, 78.5 per 1,000 in 1921,
and 52 per 1,000 in 1920, which was the lowest rate ever recorded in
the Borough. In London, in 1923, the rate of Infant Mortality was
61, and in England and Wales, 69.
The number of births of Chelsea infants in outlying institutions
in 1923 was 156, or 16.1 per cent. of the total births, as compared with
13 per cent, in 1922. The number of births occurring in outlying institutions
is steadily increasing, and is now about three-fold what it was
before the war. St. George's Hospital opened a very well equipped
Maternity Ward in May, 1923, and 45 Chelsea women were admitted
for confinement between the date of opening and the end of the year.
Ten Chelsea women were confined at the Ormond Home, 155, King'sroad,
during the year. There were 57 births in the Maternity Ward
of St. Luke's Hospital in 1923, or 5.9 per cent. of the total births.
The following tabular statement gives an outline of the work carried
on in Chelsea during 1923 in Maternity and Child Welfare, the visits
being those paid by the trained officer of the Borough Council (one
whole-time Health Visitor), and of the Chelsea Health Society and School
for Mothers (two whole-time Health Visitors), and does not include
work done by voluntary workers attached to the Society.