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injury of the child's brain during delivery and in a
series of 1,673 cases in this country 25 per cent, were
ascribed to this cause. It is probable that preventive
measures such as attention to the general health of the
mother, the early diagnosis of the toxaemias of pregnancy
and of contracted pelvis and other causes of
difficult labour would obviate a certain proportion of
the mortality.
According to the American investigations, syphilis
caused 16 per cent, of the infant deaths, judging by
blood examinations of the maternal blood, and although
this is an extremely high estimate it is probable that
timely and efficient anti-syphilitic treatment during
pregnancy would lead to good results in some of the
cases.
Maternal Mortality.
Notwithstanding the great reduction in the general
death rate and in infantile mortality during the last
twenty years in England and Wales, maternal mortality
associated with childbirth has remained unchanged during
that period.
Dame Janet Campbell, in her admirable report to
the Ministry of Health on "The Protection of Motherhood,"
points out that "child bearing demands the
sacrifice of about one maternal life for every 250 babies
born, and although many women pass through the experience
unscathed many others suffer subsequently from
injury due to childbirth which may lead to serious and
even permanent physical disability."
Sepsis is by far the commonest cause of maternal
deaths connected with pregnancy and labour. Out of
2,860 such deaths in England and Wales in 1926, 1,109
were due to sepsis (puerperal fever) and in Fulham during
the last six years 60 maternal deaths occurred, of which
30 were due to sepsis. Only two maternal deaths, however,
occurred in 1927, both due to sepsis.
The septic organisms which cause puerperal fever
may be already present in the womb before labour,