London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Leyton 1937
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Leyton]
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motherhood in Leyton is younger than in England and Wales.
Dr. Stocks shows that the median age of motherhood has been
getting slightly younger in both New Zealand and England and
Wales in the last twenty years. This contradicts the general
uninformed opinion on this subject.
| No. of Pregnane v . | Age of Patient. | Total. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 20 yrs. | 20—25 years | 25-30 years | 30—35 years | 35-40 years | 40 + years 4 | ||
| — | |||||||
| — | 2 | ||||||
| — | - | 2 | |||||
| — | - | ||||||
| — | - | ||||||
| — | - | ||||||
Table III shows the incidence of abnormalities in the result of
the pregnancy, grouped according to the age of the patient and her
previous fertility. It includes abnormalities of all kinds, viz.,
twins, congenital malformations, stillbirths, instrumental deliveries,
breech presentations, premature deliveries and miscarriages. One
might have expected to find a greater proportion of abnormalties
among primiparse— with 37.2 per cent, of the total births they
account for 40 per cent, of the abnormalities; and it is rather
surprising to find third pregnancies with 13.2 per cent, of the
abnormalities from 11.6 per cent, of the births. It is probably a
chance finding as there were as many as six pairs of twins and two
congenital abnormalities (the latter out of a total of four in the
2,088 cases) in the third pregnancies.
When the percentage of abnormalities in each age-group is
compared with the percentage of cases in the corresponding agegroup,
it would seem that the age of the mother is more significant
than her previous fertility, the 30-35 age-group having 28 per cent.