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4
has been no corresponding increase, but rather a fall, in the general
death rate.
During 1948 the number of deaths of infants under one year
of age was 38, the infantile mortality rate being 20.99 per thousand
registered live births—by far the lowest rate ever recorded since
official figures became available. It was in the year 1918 that the
first Maternity and Child Welfare Committee came into being in
Leyton. Now that the Committee has ceased to function as such,
the following figures are submitted as a tribute to their efforts in
the saving of infant life during the thirty years of the Committee's
existence, and as an example to be emulated by their successors.
Some idea of the actual saving of infant lives may be obtained
from the fact that the 'infantile mortality rate 'represents the
number of deaths of infants under one year of age per thousand
births.
Year.
Births.
Deaths under One
Year of Age.
Infantile Mortality
Rate.
1918
1928
1938
1948
1,791
1,853
1,509
1,810
161
91
70
38
89.9
49.1
46.3
20.9
These are impressive figures showing, in one small but important
part of the municipal health service, what can be achieved by
organised effort on the part of a Welfare Authority conversant with
local needs and determined to ensure that such needs are met.
In consequence of the greater attention which has been devoted
by Leyton Council during recent years to the care and welfare of
the mothers of illegitimate children, it is significant that the death
rate of illegitimate infants is now less than that of the legitimate.
For the first time since official statistics have been available there
has not been a single death of an illegitimate infant under one
year in Leyton. There was a time, not so very long ago, when the
death rate among illegitimate infants was notoriously high; and
these figures give some indication of the beneficent change in the
survival rate of illegitimate infants which has been brought about
in Leyton in the short period of ten years.
Year.
Death Rate of Infants under One Year.
Legitimate.
Illegitimate.
1938
1948
43.56
21.57
150.00
Nil