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72
MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE.
REGISTRATION AND NOTIFICATION OF BIRTHS.
The total number of births registered during the year was
2,523, 1,339 males and 1,184 females. Of these 82 were illegitimate,
being a percentage of total births of 3.2.
2,044 births occurred in the district, 1,900 being live and 144
stillbirths. Of this number, 144, comprised of 138 live and six
stillbirths, were to residents of other districts.
539 births (507 live and 32 still) were transferred from other
districts, being mostly births occurring to Harrow mothers confined
in London or the Middlesex County Council's hospitals.
There were 39 twin pregnancies (out of all live and still births).
STILLBIRTHS.
43 male and 36 female stillbirths were registered, being a rate
per thousand population of 0.54 compared with a figure of 0.62
for the country as a whole.
In one-third the infant was alive at the onset of labour at
full term, the death occurring from injury or shock during delivery.
In some the difficulty arose because of a contracted pelvis; in
others it was due to breech delivery, and four were due to twins.
It is in this group that the greatest reduction in the stillbirth rate
is to be hoped for, many of these difficulties being anticipated by
ante-natal supervision of the mother.
In a further four the knotting or strangulation of the cord
during labour resulted in the death of the foetus.
In six cases the cause of death of the foetus was due to
ante-partum haemorrhage. In a further nine cases there was
premature onset of labour, in the case of most no cause being
determined.
In about one-quarter of the cases the foetus died in utero.
In four of these there was gross developmental abnormality. In
the same number the death was apparently due to toxaemia or
albuminuria.
INFANT MORTALITY.
The infant mortality rate, which is expressed as the number
of deaths amongst infants under one year of age per thousand
born, is one of the most sensitive indices of the health of the district.
The local rate in 1935 was 42.1, compared with the figure of
57 for the country as a whole, and 62 for the Great Towns (i.e., the
towns in the country with a population exceeding 50,000), 58 for
London, and a local figure of 47.5 for the year 1934.
Most of the mortality in the days following birth is due partly
to damage to the infant during its passage, and partly to a failure