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died from congenital developmental defects and from bronchial pneumonia.
Of the four who died between three and six months bronchial pneumonia
killed two, gastro-enteritis the other two. Pneumonia accounted for
five of the eight deaths of those who reached six months of age, but died
before reaching one year of age.
The difference between the 62 infant deaths of 1952 and the 46 deaths of
1953 is accounted for by a reduction of three in the number of those who
died within twenty-four hours of birth, and of nine of those who survived
one day, but failed to survive one week. Most deaths at these ages
occurred amongst those whose mothers were confined in hospital. What
was very striking was the small number of transfer deaths of infants in the
last months of the year, there being in fact none in December and only two
in November. The weather at this time was, of course, particularly mild
and that may be the real explanation for the infant mortality rate for 1953
being such a marked improvement on that of 1952.
Because deaths which occur before the infant has reached one month
of age are due to causes so different from the causes of fatalities of those
who survive one month, but fail to reach the age of one year the rate
of deaths of those of under one month is commonly recorded separately
as neo-natal mortality rate. In this district in this last year it was 31,
comprising 67% of the infant mortality rate. The great fall in the
infant mortality rate which was such a feature of the vital statistics of this
country for this century occurred principally in the deaths which were due
to environmental causes and which occurred largely in those infants
who had survived one month. The infant mortality rate of the country
as a whole continues to fall, but now at a slower rate. Nevertheless, this
neo-mortality rate which for the country as a whole for 1952 was 18.-2,
had hardly changed at all since 1950. Whereas at one time it formed
a relatively small proportion of the infant mortality rate, it is now becoming
responsible for most of the infant deaths. As a contrast to those
deaths occurring in infants which have survived the first few weeks and
which are largely due to environmental factors, these infant deaths are due
to factors associated with delivery, prematurity, congenital diseases or
abnormalities, or to atelectasis, which in some cases is a failure of adaptation
of the infant in its new environment.
Stillbirths
Stillbirths represent a loss of infants just as do the infant deaths,
and many probably are the result of factors similar to those which bring
about some of the earlier infant deaths. The stillbirth rate for the
country as a whole has not changed much for some years. In 1952 it
was 27.2 per 1,000 live births, much the same figure as that for 1949.
71 stillbirths were registered in this district last year, this being a
rate of 0.32 per thousand population, or 25.4 per thousand total births;
the corresponding figures for the country as a whole were 0.35 and 22.4.
Mortality of Infants between One and Five Years of Age
Five children survived their first but did not reach their fifth birthday,
the numbers who died in each year being 1, 1, 1, and 2. Infections
accounted for three of these deaths, accident for one.