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144
Deaths Under One Month.
An analysis of Table VI. shows that 23.5 per cent. of the
infant deaths occurred before the baby was 24 hours old; 34.2
per cent. during the first week of life; and 46.4 per cent before
the end of the first month. In 1936 the corresponding figures
were 19.4%, 37.3%, and 47.8%. 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 45.1 per cent. of deaths under 1 month of life. In the
same group can be placed debility which was the cause of 9.9 per
cent. Injury at birth is rather different, inasmuch as it is, by
skilled ante-natal and natal attention, avoidable; injury caused
7.7 per cent. of the deaths. Deaths under one month due to
congenital deformities constituted 14.3 per cent. of the whole
during this age period.
Deaths Under Three Months.
One hundred and twenty-five babies died during the first
three months of life, a percentage of the total infant deaths of
64%, and an infant mortality rate of 38 per 1,000 births. As the
total infantile mortality rate was 60, it is seen that nearly twothirds
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 : Diarrhoea, 14 deaths,
and Pneumonia, 5 deaths.
Deaths between the 4th month and the end of the first year
of life numbered 69 and were caused chiefly by Diarrhoea (31.0%)
and Pneumonia (26.8%). These two conditions, year by year,
figure as the most prominent causes of death at this age period
The Pneumonia deaths in all babies under 1 year occurred in
the following months :—January 5, February 3, March 2, April
4, May 4, June 3, August 1, September 1, October 1, November 3,
and December 8.
Taking the figures in the table as a whole, the outstanding
features are : —
(1) The predominance of Pneumonia and Diarrhoea. Between
them they accounted for 37.8 per cent. of the total deaths, and
contributed 22.7 deaths per 1,000 births towards the infantile
mortality rate.