View report page

251
Coming to the actual work, 3,495 visits have been paid to 832 babies.
This number does not include "outs." Twelve of these had died before
the visit took place; thirty-one have died since, and eighty-nine have
removed. Reliable statistics regarding the whole are not available. The
work of the Voluntary Helpers is most valuable, but one can hardly
expect them, at any rate as yet, to gain the same amount of information
as a trained worker. The following figures, however, relating to those
families systematically visited by myself may prove interesting and may
also be taken as typical of the whole:—
Visited 336
Removed 39
Died 15
Taking away the thirty-nine who removed, this gives a death-rate of
50.5 per 1000 visited. Of those remaining, there were—
223 breast fed.
56 mixed feeding.
3 hand fed.
The mothers of these infants had previously given birth to 1224 living
children, of whom 187 died before reaching the age of one year, giving an
infantile mortality rate of 152.7 per 1000 births. 26.6 per cent. worked
for varying periods during pregnancy, 15.4 per cent. have started work
since the birth of the child. Very few work regularly, so that reliable
information as to income is hard to obtain, but amongst the home-workers
the average earnings appears to be 1s. per day, and in some cases this is
not earned without the help of the children. 15 per cent. have, at some
period of my visits, been in receipt of parish relief. 21 per cent. occupied
only one room; 25 per cent. two rooms, the families often consisting of
parents and five children, and even where two rooms are occupied, the
same sleeping apartment serves for all. If the authorities compel them
to move, it is only to come across them later on, living under similar
conditions.
Of the fifteen deaths: —
2 died in the 1st month.
5 „ 2nd „
4 „ 3rd „
1 „ 4th „
3 „ 5th „