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32
The number of legitimate births was 781 and the deaths amongst these
numbered 50, giving a rate of 64. Amongst the 125 illegitimate births there
were 18 deaths, the rate being 144.
In 1935 the death rate for all infants per 1,000 live births was 56.
The means adopted in the Borough with a view to reducing this rate
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 A.) will be found on page 33,
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 1936, as in other years, the greatest number of deaths occurred in the early
weeks of life. Of the babies, 16 were less than one month old when they died and
28 less than three months. The corresponding figures for 1935 were 23 and 32
respectively.
The outstanding causes of death and the proportions traceable to them were
those usually noted. Diarrhoea and enteritis, which .head the list, (numbers 7 and
8 irn the table) accounted for 22 in 1936 and 7 in 1935. Prematurity (12, 13 and
14), caused 15 in 1936, and 17 in 1935. Respiratory diseases took 8 in 1936 and
3 in 1935. The considerable increase in the number of deaths from diarrhoea and
enteritis is noteworthy though search has failed to show any particular reason
for it.
Amongst the other causes of death, mention may be made of whooping cough
and measles which accounted for 3 and 2 respectively. Injury at birth caused 5
deaths and there was one case of "overlaying".
Christ Church, which always contributes most largely to the infantile as to
most of the other mortality rates, being the most thickly populated area and that
in which there is most poverty, most overcrowding and probably most neglect of
ordinary hygienic precautions, is again at the head of the list with 32 deaths
amongst infants. In 1935 the figure was 20. Of the 32 deaths 10 were credited
to diarrhoea and enteritis, nearly 50 per cent of the total for the borough.