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MORTALITY IN CHILDHOOD. 89
"comforters" or "dummies," which are believed to be a cause of mouth deformation and bad
teeth in later life. Her visits appear to have been generally welcomed, while she describes the
Department's booklet on "Infant Rearing" as very popular.
Fertility Records.—In the course of the visits made on new-born infants much
information was collected with reference to the frequency of pregnancy, miscarriages, &c.
Fertility records were thus obtained of 1,061 families, the majority being incomplete, as the
mothers had not passed the climacteric. The 1,061 mothers had been pregnant 4,203 times, and
had given birth to 3,944 living children, of whom 535 were dead at the time the last child (that
of 1913) was born. The number of pregnancies of individual women varied from 1 ('235
women) to 15 (2 women). In Table 48* the data collected have been analysed† to show the
frequency of miscarriages, still-births, &c., associated with each successive order of pregnancy,
the table being divided into two sections, of which the upper relates to families in which no
children were reported as having died after birth and the lower to those families which admitted
losing children who had been born alive. The former group included 510 women who had been
pregnant 1,901 times. On 170 occasions pregnancy had terminated in miscarriage (132) or stillbirth
(43), the remaining 1,726 pregnancies resulting in 1,736 living children, all of whom were
reported to be alive at the time of the inquiry. The miscarriages formed 6.9 per cent. of the
total number of pregnancies and the still-births 2.2. These women, up to the time of their
deliveries in 1913, had families averaging 340 living children per 100 women.
In the families which had lost children, there were 316 mothers who had been pregnant
2,117 times, 126 (5.9 per cent.) of the pregnancies being reported to have been interrupted by
miccarriage, and 52 to have resulted in still-born children. The still-births in this group formed
2.4 per cent. of the total pregnancies. The 1,939 pregnancies remaining over yielded 1,970
living children. In this group the families—again, in the majority of cases, incomplete—
averaged 623 children per 100 women, sharply contrasting with the previous group. Of the
1,970 children born alive, 535 were reported to have been dead at the time of the inquiry, equal
to a mortality of 271 per 1,000. The causes of death given by the mothers were too indefinite
to make it worth while to attempt any classification.
In writing under "Notification of Births" it was stated that the percentage of still-births
notified was 2.45 of all births. Opinions have been expressed in these reports and elsewhere to
the effect that so low a percentage was evidence of the incompleteness of notification. Such
opinions were based on Continental experience when the proportion recorded in many places
is as high as 5 per cent., and in a few places reaches 7 per cent. It is singular that the analysis
given in the preceding paragraphs shows a proportion (on the total of 4,018 pregnancies
multiparae) of still-births of 23 per cent. The agreement may be accidental, and it has to be
remembered that the records here dealt with do not constitute a random sample of the whole
population of the Borough. The infants visited are the offspring of parents who from poverty
or other cause are deemed to be in need of advice and help.
Mortality in Special Areas.—Having regard to the prevalence of diarrhoea and to the high
mortality from the respiratory diseases already noticed, it was expected that the infantile
mortality in the "Special Areas," parts of the Borough occupied by the poorest inhabitants,
would be higher last year than in 1912, and even than the average. The figures given in Table
49 show, however, that in "Hall Park," "North Wharf," and "Clarendon Street," all lying in
Church Ward, last year's rates were less than those recorded in 1912, and that in "Clarendon
Street" only was the 1913 rate in excess (by a single unit only) than the average for 1908-12.
In the three other areas the 1913 rates exceeded those of 1912, and, in two of them, the
averages.
* Table 48 is a condensed statement of the original tabulation, which contains much information which cannot
be dealt with here.
† The table deals only with the pregnancies subsequent to the first. Last year 238 children born to 235
primiparous women were included among the infants visited.
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