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15
The corrections considerably modify the Holborn rates as will be seen from the
following figures:—
Infantile Death-rate in Holborn per 1,000 Births
Year 1927.
Registrar-General's Quarterly Report Corrected
1st Quarter 58 39
2nd 73 50
3rd 27 24
4 th 69 37
It will be seen from the analysis on page 106 of the ages at which these
infantile deaths took place that four occurred under the age of four
weeks. Such deaths are not considered to be due to the environment of the baby,
but to ill defined alterations to the health of the mother; they are recognised as
being especially difficult to prevent.
Some difficulty exists in connection with infants whose parents are of foreign
birth and upbringing, and who do not readily conform to the accepted standards
of infant care and hygiene in this country.
Of the 19 deaths in 1927, five occurred in Italian families; two of these children
were born in Italy, and brought up there for some time; one of these attended the
Council's Infant Welfare Centre soon after coming to this country. There is a
tendency for these mothers to hand feed their children either instead of or as well
as feeding them on the breast. These mothers are more inclined to be influenced
by the advice of Italian godmothers than by that of English women.
In order to enlist the support of other workers who come into contact with
Italian mothers, visits were paid to the headmistresses of the schools in Holborn
which have a large proportion of Italian scholars, and the teachers expressed their
willingness to advise mothers to take their babies and young children to an Infant
Welfare Centre and to endeavour to engender confidence in English hygiene
teaching, whenever opportunity arose.
Defective hygiene was also found in connection with two English infant deaths.
In both the deaths seemed to be due chiefly to incorrect feeding. The grandfather
of one counteracted any advice given, and in the other the mother seemed unable
to profit by the instruction given.
Three deaths were due to whooping cough (see page 111) contracted from an
elder child in the family; one was entirely breast fed and was making good progrest