View report page

165
The following table is intended to show the deaths of babies
who at one time or another during their first year attended a
Clinic, as compared with deaths among those who never
attended. If a baby only attended once it is included in the
Clinic returns:—

2,224 babies under one year of age attended the Clinics for
the first time during 1935. Within the same period 3,288 babies
were born and 147 died; 54 of these latter are not included in the
above table, as information concerning them was not obtainable,
Although the clinic attendance figures and the births and deaths
figures do not cover exactly the same periods, the attendances of
new cases at the clinics do not fluctuate so greatly as to cause
serious error. Of the 93 babies tabulated who died, 16 had
attended a clinic in Croydon and 77 had not attended, i.e., 17
per cent. of the deaths were in clinic babies and 83 per cent. in
non-clinic babies. Of the 3,288 babies born, approximately 67.6
per cent. attended or would attend on calculation based on past
attendances. The infantile mortality, estimated on this basis is
only 6.9 per 1,(100 births for the clinic babies, and 48.6 per 1,000
births for non-clinic babies.
The following table is interesting, especially when the figures
for under 1 year are contrasted with those for over 1 year,
Aproximately 80 per cent, of the former group of babies were
found healthy on their first visit and were presumably brought
because their mothers desired expert opinion and advice quite
apart from treatment; in the latter group, 68 per cent, were found
healthy on the first visit, which may be interpreted to mean that
when a mother first attends a clinic with a child over a year old
she does so because of some difficulty in management; 70 per