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59
Maternity and child welfare
The year 1904 marked the start of a serious attempt by the Health
Department to do something about infant mortality which in this
particular year was exceptionally high due to epidemic diarrhoea and
enteritis, "diseases which must be considered to a great extent evidence
of the improper feeding and care of infants, and therefore preventable."
The infant mortality rate in that year was 122 per thousand births.
The number of deaths of children under one year of age was 440 and
represented more than one-fourth of the total deaths from all causes
at all ages.
The background to the subsequent action by the Department is
explained by the Medical Officer of Health when he stated in his report
of 1904 regarding epidemic diarrhoea and enteritis that . the
disease is almost entirely limited to bottle-fed children, and that the
majority of deaths occur among the poorer classes. It is most probable
that hot and dry seasons are conditions which encourage active changes
in the milk to which harmful bacteria have gained access. That the
poorer homes suffer most is probably due to the greater facilities for
food contamination arising from its improper storage and the insanitary
condition of the home, or to the stale and infected milk supplied by
small vendors, who have not the facilities for cooling and properly
storing milk which has often travelled a long distance under conditions
favourable to deterioration before reaching them."
The Woman Sanitary Inspector visited 65 homes at which deaths
had occurred from epidemic diarrhoea or enteritis, and elicited the
following facts with regard to the methods of feeding:—
Table 50
Breastfed 0
Cows'milk 13
Diluted condensed milk 21
Cows' milk and condensed milk 12
Indefinite (boiled bread, tea, potatoes.
etc.) 19
It was found that practically all the infants who died from this disease
were artificially fed, and that the parents did not show any concern
on the advent of diarrhoea among infants during the summer months,
attributing it to the fact that "it is the fruit season". The woman
Sanitary Inspector said that "the majority of the parents visited displayed
amazing ignorance in regard to the most rudimentary principles essential
for the feeding and rearing of their children. In many cases the houses
were in an uncleanly condition." In eleven cases the children were
illegitimate. Proper means of storing food was rarely provided in the
houses in the poorer parts of the Borough, and, when present not
infrequently remained unused.
The Medical Officer of Health went on to report in 1904 that "it
may be fairly assumed from information collected that a large proportion
of the infantile deaths was due to improper feeding, and consequently
preventable. The fact that so much life is wasted through ignorance is
lamentable in itself, but one cannot estimate the baneful effect upon