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These figures are, of course, a considerable advance on those
recorded during the years 1923 and 1922, which were 807 and 609
respectively. There is no doubt that, steadily but surely, the
immense importance of ante-natal examination and, if necessary,
treatment is being recognised and a very satisfactory feature in
connection with the patients who were accommodated in the
Council's Maternity Home is the fact that, with very few exceptions,
regular attendance at the Ante-Natal Centres preceded admission.
As a consequence, the Maternity and Child Welfare Medical Officer
was already familiar with the individual requirements of the patients
and this fact contributed not a little to the very satisfactory results
produced at the Maternity Home.
During the year arrangements were made for midwives to
attend our various Ante-Natal Clinics, such facilities being made
use of by a large proportion of midwives in the district, several of
whom have expressed their appreciation of the facilities offered.
Infantile Mortality. It is a matter of considerable
disappointment to have to record a rise in the Infant Mortality
Rate of 12 per thousand births, the figure for 1924 being 73, whereas
last year's figure was 61. Comparing the actual causes of death
between the two years the increase in Infantile Mortality is at once
apparent. During the first quarter of 1924, as will be seen from the
appropriate Table, the actual number of infants who died under
one year of age was 154 compared with 129 in the previous year,
i.e., an increase of 25. Of these, unfortunately, measles accounted
for 8 deaths last year, compared with none in the previous year,
and pneumonia 22 against 10 only in 1923. This regrettable
mortality took place during the first quarter of the year during a
time when the weather was exceptionally cold and damp, which
period coincided with a widespread and severe epidemic of Whooping
Cough which was the forerunner of these chest complications.
It will, of course, be appreciated that to arrive at a correct
estimation of the Borough's improved conditions affecting infants
it is necessary to take a rather wider view than is represented solely
by considering the figures for one particular year. There is no
possible question of doubt that the Maternity and Child Welfare
Schemes which came into operation as a result of the Maternity and
Child Welfare Act, 1918, have had a most widespread and beneficial
effect upon the health and well-being of those infants and young
children for whom the Act provides, and this is best demonstrated
perhaps by averaging the Infantile Mortality Rate during the past
4 years, i.e., approximately during the time of such Maternity and
Child Welfare Schemes have been in operation and comparing the
figure thus obtained with the preceding 5 years. The figures, so far
as Greenwich is concerned, estimated on this basis, are 65 as against
95 for the preceding 5 years, earlier average figures steadily increasing
as one goes back into history.