View report page

30
drawn by Dr. Robertson are, that the influence of industrial employment is
largely masked by the general state of poverty; but that, so far as the investigation
goes, the type of industrial employment in vogue does not appreciably
influence the health of the mother or her infant, when the standard of comparison
is that of women in equally poor circumstances, but not so employed. If
the results of married female labour are analysed more closely, it will probably
be found that the antenatal influences are less injurious than those which follow
after the birth of the child. The causes of death most profoundly affected by
antenatal causes are prematurity, congenital debility, and convulsions ; and it
is probable that the deaths from these diseases are not higher amongst children
whose mothers are industrially employed, than among children of women under
similar social conditions but not so employed, other conditions, of course, being
equal. In the Limehouse District, which contains the largest proportion of
married women employed in factories in the Borough, 25 per cent. of all deaths
under one year of age in 1909 were attributable to the three above-mentioned
causes, while in the Whitechapel District, which contains the least proportion of
women so employed, 19 per cent. were due to these causes. In the Limehouse
District, 16 per cent. of all deaths under one year of age were due to prematurity,
while in the Whitechapel District the number was 11.6 per cent. This disparity
is probably due, not so much to the industrial as to the social conditions which
prevail in the two districts.
Married female labour, however, bulks less largely than the great economic
condition of poverty which brings to the mother insufficient food and insufficient
rest.
In this district, poverty is the chief cause of married female labour. The
mothers go to work, not from choice, but from necessity. It is doubtful if work
is injurious to the expectant mother, provided it be not heavy or prolonged.
The improved food and greater comfort, which this work means, should more
than counteract its disadvantages.
The actual effect of the employment of women on infantile mortality, can
only be determined by further investigation and more exact information, not
only as to the sanitary surroundings of the selected areas, but also as to the kind
of employment.
If the antenatal effect of married female labour is not obvious, the conditions
under which the child is brought up as a result, undoubtedly affect the infantile
mortality.