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MATERNAL MORTALITY.
After two successive years in which no maternal deaths
occurred, one maternal death was reported in 1953, with a resultant
maternal mortality rate of 1.31 per 1,000 live and stillbirths
compared with that of 0.76 for England and Wales.
This single death in three years was due to a rare combination
of abnormalities.
INFANT MORTALITY.
During 1953 there were 22 deaths among children under one
year of age, as compared with 18 last year, and an average of 20
in the last five years. Two of the deaths were in respect of
illegitimate children.
This record is, unfortunately, not very satisfactory and several
of the deaths, particularly those due to infections, should have been
preventable.
The resultant infant mortality rate was thus 29.3 per 1,000
registered births, compared with 24.0, 21.7, and 17.2 in the previous
three years, the rate in 1950 being the lowest ever recorded
for this District.
The infant mortality rate for England and Wales was the
record of 26.8 in 1953, the lowest previously recorded being 27.6
in 1952.
The 16 babies dying in the first month correspond with a
neo-natal mortality rate of 21.3 (i.e. deaths in the first month per
1,000 live births), which is higher than the average for the past 8
years, which was 18.
During the year 5 premature babies were notified as being
born at home and 34 in institutions. Of the latter 7 died, 5 in the
first day, one on the twentieth day and one at two months.
This suggests that 20% of the premature babies died, compared
with an average of 22% in the years since 1945.
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