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140
Deaths Under One Month.
An analysis of Table VI. shows that 19.4% of the infant
deaths occurred before the baby was 24 hours old ; 37.3% during
the first week of life; and 47.8% before the end of the first month.
In 1935 the corresponding figures were 23.1%, 44.9%, and 56.5%.
These figures relate to infant deaths due to causes probably
operating before birth. The chief individual cause was premature
birth, which was the assigned cause in 45.3% of deaths under 1
month of life. In the same group can be placed debility which
was the cause of 17.2%. Injury at birth is rather different, inasmuch
as it is, by skilled ante-natal and natal attention, avoidable; injury
caused 9.4% of the deaths. Deaths under one month due to congenital
deformities constituted 9.4% of the whole during this age
period. It is interesting to see that conditions probably brought on
by faulty feeding played practically no part in this mortality.
Deaths Under Three Months.
Ninety babies died during the first three months of life, a
percentage of the total infant deaths of 67%, and an infant mortality
rate of 28 per 1,000 births. As the total infantile mortality rate
was 41, it is seen that over two-thirds 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 end of the third month shows the chief of these
to be: Pneumonia, 7 deaths, and Diarrhoea, 6 deaths. The effects
of improper feeding, and exposure to infection, are commencing
to make themselves felt.
Deaths between the 4th month and the end of the first year
of life numbered 37 and were caused chiefly by Diarrhoea (32.4%)
and Pneumonia (27.0%). These two conditions, year by year,
figure as the most prominent causes of death at this age period.
The Pneumonia deaths occurred in the following months:—
January 2, February 4, March 3, May 4, August 1, October 1,
November 3, and December 2.
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 35.0% of the total deaths, and contributed 14.5 deaths per l,000
births towards the infantile mortality rate.