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14
Infant Deaths.—Compared with the infant death-rate of 38
per thousand births in the previous year, the infant death-rate
of 48 per thousand births for the year under review represents
an apparently marked increase. The infant mortality in 1934,
however, was exceptionally low, for statistics published after the
issue of last year's Annual Report showed Ealing to have the lowest
infant mortality among towns of 100,000 population and over in
England and Wales.
Notwithstanding this increase in 1935, the infant death-rate
for the Borough (48) is much below the rates for England and Wales
(57), for the 121 Great Towns (62), and for London (58).
The causes of infant deaths, shown in the table on the following
page, indicate that the increase in the number of infant deaths
may be attributed almost entirely to an increased incidence of
prematurity, for the deaths due to this cause and the total infant
deaths were both 14 more than in the previous year. It will also
be seen that 50 of the 91 deaths occurred before the infant was one
week old, while 62 deaths occurred before the infant was four weeks
old. This latter figure gives a neo-natal death-rate of 32 per thousand
live births.