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22
Care of the premature and the control and correction of congenital
malformation and abnormalities are now the fields in which
lie the greatest possibilities of reducing infant mortality. In this
connection interest has centred on heredity, with a corresponding
stimulation in the study of genetics.
It has been shown that surgery on the newborn and young
babies can effectively deal with abnormalities of the gullet, the
food tract and the heart, whilst certain mental defects associated
with faulty metabolism can, in certain instances, be greatly ameliorated
by selective diets. Even the psychological aspects of infant
care are being vigorously tackled in the child welfare clinics and
hospitals where the relationship of mother and child are seen to be
of the utmost importance in the emotional behaviour and disturbances
of early life.
It would appear that what has previously been considered an
irreducible core of infant deaths may eventually prove to be
reducible.
The Infantile Mortality Rate, measured by the deaths of children
under one year of age to the number of live births registered
was 18.07 per thousand live births as compared with 14.98 for last
year and 20.07, the average for the previous ten years. For the
County of London the rate was 22.3, in comparison with 22.2, the
figure returned for England and Wales.
The present Borough figure of 18.07 shows an increase of 3.09
over that of the previous year and is 2.00 lower than the average
for the last 10 years.
A table showing the causes of and ages at death is included
in the Appendix to the Report.