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2
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Borough of Erith.
I have the honour to present, on behalf of my predecessor
Dr. R. A. Leader who resigned in October, 1946, the seventh
Annual Report for the year 1946. I did not take up duties as
your Medical Officer of Health until March, 1947.
I would draw your attention to the rise in the birth rate
from 19.13 to 22.3 for 1946, and to the marked drop in
Infantile Mortality from 39.61 in 1945 to 32.3 in 1946, which
indicates an improvement in the mental state and general health
of mothers, which is in no small measure due to the high
quality and adequacy of the personal services in maternity and
child welfare spheres rendered by the staff of the Health
Department.
A new figure marking the popularity of maternity services
has been introduced, which shows that during 1946, of the 981
births 18 comprised 9 sets of twins, making a total of 972
mothers. Thus we have the high figure of 939 mothers out of
a possible 972 who used the Council's Ante-Natal Services.
This works out at 80.3 per cent. Such is a figure of which
Erith may well be proud and indicates a consciousness in the
minds of present-day mothers of the need for care and advice
during pregnancy. Is it not a 'sine qua non' that where a
service is popular then it must be good ?
It will be noticed that once again more than 50 per cent.
of the births occurring in the Borough have taken place at
the Council's own Maternity Home at Hainault. I venture
to say that this institution has rendered invaluable service to
the borough, especially in these times when the housing
problem is so acute, which position I feel has shown very little
improvement since reporting on in detail by my predecessor
in last year's report. I notice, too, that your attention was
drawn last year to the entire absence of maternal deaths. This
has been repeated in 1946.
It might be safe to say that the health barometer in any
district is its death rate, and a perusal of these will show that
Erith, with 10.4 from all causes, compares very favourably
indeed with the total of 11.5 for England and Wales and 11.7