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42
Remarks.
These results afford in some degree pointers indicating
the directions in which further development may profitably
be sought under the maternity and child welfare scheme : —
(a) Development and extension of maternity home accommodation
and of efficient midwifery, in order to combat the
influences producing premature births, still births,
atrophy, debility and marasmus, and birth injuries.
(b) Development of general measures of hygiene for the control
of bronchitis and pneumonia; these will include frequent
scavenging in crowded areas, more spacious housing, and
concentration on all measures reducing dust and smoke
and increasing the space allowance to the individual.
At the same time will be required an extension of educational
work for the instruction of parents in the means of
avoiding personal infection, in the maintenance of general
health and of cleanliness in the home; in the dangers of
respiratory disease associated with such conditions as
measles, whooping cough, etc.; in the nursing measures
needed to avoid such complications; and in the need for
summoning medical help at the earliest stage of their
onset.
(c) Improvement of measures for dealing with the infectious
diseases particularly dangerous to the young child, viz.,
measles, whooping cough, and diphtheria.
(d) More education of parents in questions of dietetics, and in
measures to avoid the occurrence of digestive disturbances,
which cause a proportion of the deaths from convulsions,
the balance being largely due to the acute infectious
diseases, which can also be dealt with by appropriate
methods.
(e) Measures for the better supervision of the unmarried
mother and the illegitimate child, who are exposed to an
altogether excessive extent to the factors producing mortality
among infants.
(f) The establishment of an even closer link between the antenatal
clinic and infant centre and the clinic for the treatment
of venereal diseases, seeing that a material proportion
of such conditions as still-birth and premature birth are
due to infection of the mother with these diseases.
Table Showing Mortality at ages 0-1, 1-5, and 5-15 years during
the period 1901-1921.
(Note.—The population on which these rates are based are set
out in the Table on page 37).