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160
Deaths Under One Month.
An analysis of Table LXXX. shows that 20.5% of the infant
deaths occurred betore the baby was 24 hours old; 41.5% during the
first week of life; and 48% before the end of the first month. In
1929 the corresponding figures were 13%, 28% and 40%. These
figures relate to infant deaths due to causes probably operating
before birth and do not vary greatly as between different localities
in England. The chief individual cause was premature birth which
was the assigned cause in 44% of deaths under 1 month of life. In
the same group can be placed the second great cause, debility which
was the factor in 20.7%. Injury at birth is rather different inasmuch
as it is, by skilled ante-natal and natal attention, avoidable;
injury caused 8.5% of the deaths. Deaths under one month due to
congenital deformities constituted 13.4% of the whole during this
age period. It is interesting to see that conditions probably
brought on by faulty feeding played no part in this mortality. This
group of deaths contributed 23.3% per 1,000 births towards the
infantile mortality rate.
Deaths Under Three Months.
One hundred and nineteen babies born died during the first
three months of life, a percentage of the total infant deaths of 69%,
and an infant mortality rate of 34 per 1,000 births. As the total infantile
mortality rate was 48, it is seen nearly three-quarters of that
rate was due to deaths in infants under 3 months of age. A perusal
of the causes of death between the end of the period dealt with in
the preceding section, and the third month shows an alteration in
the chief eauses of death; these were Diarrhoea (27%), Debility
(21.6%) and Pneumonia (18.9%). The effects of improper feeding
are commencing to make themselves felt, and from this age period
onward to the end of the first year of life, Diarrhoea, together with
Pneumonia, are the two outstanding causes. The Pneumonia
deaths occurred in the following months: January 1, February 1.
March 1, April 2, May 2, June 1, July 1, August 2, October 2,
December 6.
Deaths between the 4th month and the end of the first year of
life were caused chiefly by Diarrhoea (28.8%); Pneumonia (17.3%)
and Debility (7.9%).
Taking the figures in the table as a whole, the outstanding
features are:—
(1) The predominance of premature birth, and conditions
classified as debility and marasmus. Between them they accounted
for just over 40% of the total deaths, and contributed 19.6 per
thousand births towards the infantile mortality rate.