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12
Health and the Mode of Feeding on the rate of infant mortality and
ill-heath.
Table III shows the influence of Mother's work on her health,
confinement, mode of feeding and care of home.
Table IV gives the occupation of Mothers, Reasons for Bottle
Feeding and Premature Weaning, with list of deaths.
It is somewhat difficult to distinguish between the many and
various factors. The lowest class families whose extreme poverty is
indeed in many cases caused by their own bad habits, intemperance
and vice, tend to gravitate into basements or the lowest class of
dwellings. It is, however, satisfactory to note that the number of
badly housed is less than that of the very poor. Under the heading
Mother's Work (Table IId), work away from the home is seen to be an
important factor and is also a question closely allied to that of poverty.
The man's unemployment is almost without exception the cause of the
woman's work, but although immediate needs are thus met, the woman's
low and irregular earnings, generally in unskilled trade, are a poor
substitute for the man's wages, and the neglect of domestic duties further
aggravates the poverty in the home. Insufficient and badly prepared food,
uncleanliness, cold rooms, inadequate clothing and want of care, recur
with unvarying frequency on the records of these cases (Table IIId).
Underfeeding, overwork and. worry undermine the mother's health
(Table Ilia), and perhaps entail premature weaning under circumstances
in which fresh milk can least be afforded or any care given to
the preparation of the child's food (Table IIIc). The high death-rate
of infants weaned under six weeks is undoubtedly in many cases
traceable to this cause (Table II/). Outwork of this type is chiefly
found in South Westminster where the proportion of casual labourers
is large and poverty extreme. Conditions of homework in Worth and
South Westminster are entirely different. This is almost exclusively
carried on in Soho (North) at the tailoring trade or in eating-houses,
small shops, &c., where earnings are higher and good conditions, on the
whole, prevail. In contrast to the woman at outwork, the tailoress
working at her husband's trade takes the place of an extra hand in
the busy season and is thus at work when the man's wages are at their
height. Money is then plentiful and in many cases a girl is hired to
do the house-work and mind the children. The death-rate of infants
over one month is very low in this class although it would appear as
if long hours sitting at tailoring had some influence on the mother's
health and confinement and on still-births and pre-natal defects
(Table IIIa b and Table IId). The same influence is also noticeable
among mothers going out to work, but here once more the concurrent
fact of poverty must be borne in mind. In twelve out of thirty-eight