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31
The means adopted in the Borough with a view to bringing about a reduction
and generally improving the life and health chances of infants and children are
described in a separate section of the report—Maternity and Child Welfare. This
part being merely statistical, it is not proposed at this point to do more than give
some sort of analysis of the figures relating to deaths amongst infants.
Causes.—A Table (Ministry of Health, Table I.) will be found on page 32
in which, in addition to the causes of death, are shown the distribution of the
deaths according to age and locality.
So far as age and causation are concerned, conditions vary little year by year.
In 1931, as in other years, the greatest number of deaths occurred in the early
weeks of life. Of the babies, 18 were less than one month old when they died and
29 less than three months. The figures for 1930 were 29 and 40.
The outstanding causes of death and the proportions traceable to them were
those usually noted. Prematurity (numbers 12, 13 and 14 in the table), which, as
usual heads the list, caused 26 in 1930, and 20 in 1931. Diarrhoea and enteritis
(7 and 8) accounted for 14 in 1930 and 11 in 1931. Respiratory diseases, the
third of the main causes, took 14 in 1930 and in 1931, 24.
Amongst the other causes of death, those which call for mention are the
commoner infectious diseases, which together led to 2 deaths among infants, the
particular disease being diphtheria. No death was stated to be due to over-laying
or to measles, and only 1 to meningitis.
In the following table information supplementary to that in the large table is
given with regard to deaths in various sub-districts.