View report page

31
A large proportion of the deaths, 43, equal to 37 per
cent., died in the first month, and of these 35 occurred in
the first week. Practically all of these may be ascribed
to ante-natal or intra-natal causes.
These facts point to the necessity of greater attention to
and control of the expectant mother; and on taking into
consideration the increase of deaths due to injury at birth
the need for greater skill in obstetrics is obvious.
The Number of Deaths from Prematurity has fallen
from 20 to 11, and this is probably due to the fact that
a greater number of the expectant mothers attend the
ante-natal clinics regularly and to the better feeding
resulting from the decrease in unemployment.
Infective Enteritis and Pneumonia still claim by far the
greatest number of victims. Pneumonia accounted for 22
deaths and infective enteritis for 18. These may be very
properly ascribed to lack of knowledge on the part of the
mother in the problems of infant feeding and management,
which indicates the necessity for more frequent home
visiting and greater educational measures.