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14
Maternal Mortality
There was in 1953 only one death primarily due to or associated
with pregnancy or childbirth. The maternal mortality rate was therefore
0.3. The figure of the country as a whole was 0.76.
The fatality occurred in a woman who had full ante-natal supervision.
Because of adherence of the placenta, following normal delivery
at home, the patient was removed to hospital. The placenta was removed
and the puerperium was uneventful until on the eighth day the patient
had a pulmonary embolism which proved fatal in a short time.
Deaths from Accidents
During the year there were 40 deaths (19 male and 21 female), from
violent causes.
Ten deaths (eight male and two female) were the result of road
accidents. Of these six occurred other than in this district ; in all of
these a motor vehicle was involved. There were five fatal road accidents
in this district, a motor vehicle being involved in each one. In three, the
victim was a pedestrian, two of these being elderly persons who were
knocked down by cars. The other was a young person knocked down
by a motor cycle. Two deaths occurred amongst the riders of motor
cycles and two cyclists were fatally injured when knocked down by cars.
Falls of the elderly accounted for eleven deaths, ten of these being
of women. In all but one of these cases the fall occurred at home.
Poisoning caused the deaths of three, burns of another three. Coal
gas poisoning resulted in one death.
There was only one death from accident amongst children, this being
the result of a burn of a child of four years of age.
According to the Home Office Report of the Standing Inter-departmental
Committee on Accidents in the Home, the commonest kinds of
fatal accidents in the home in 1951 were falls 58%, burns and scalds 13%,
suffocation 12%, and coal gas poisoning 8 %. About nine-tenths of the falls,
over half the burns and scalds and nearly two-thirds of the coal gas
poisonings happened to old people over 65 ; while at least eight out of
every ten suffocations and one out of five of the burns and scalds happened
to children under five years of age. The Heating Appliances (Fireguard)
Act, 1952, will help to ensure that domestic heating appliances are
adequately guarded.
Deaths from Suicide
The 24 cases of suicide in 1952 were a sharp rise over the number
of 18 in 1951. In 1953 the figure fell to 14 (eight men and six women).
Five of the men and all of the women chose poisoning by coal gas; two
of the other men took poison.
The distribution of the deaths was fairly even over the year.
Once again there is the variation in the ages of those of the two
sexes. As in previous years, nearly all the women were between 40 and
60, whereas the men were mostly outside this range.