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70
It will be noted that the above table only accounts for 1,625
of the 1,666 total births registered. The remaining 41 births are
included by the Registrar-General as belonging to Ilford, but I
am unable to allocate them to the various Wards.
I would again call attention to the very heavy infantile mortality
among illegitimate children. Of 52 illegitimate children
born 12 died, giving an infantile mortality rate of 230 per 1,000
births, while of 1,'614 legitimate children born 78 died, giving
an infantile mortality rate of 48.
This shows the great necessity of a strict supervision of the
home conditions and the care given to these illegitimate children.
Some of them are foster-children, and as such are under the
supervision of the Infant Life Protection Visitor of the Romford
Board of Guardians by reason of the Children's Act, 1908. With
such a Maternity and Child Welfare Scheme as is in operation in
Ilford it is highly desirable that these foster-children should be
known to the Medical Officer of Health, be in attendance at the
Infant Welfare Centres, and be visited as required by the trained
Nurses attached to the Department. The Boards of Guardians
were requested by the Ministry of Health in a circular dated
September 30th, 1919, to confer with Local Authorities on the
subject, and the Maternity Committee of the Ilford Council has
approached the Romford Board of Guardians with a view to some
scheme of co-ordination being carried into effect.
Table IV. gives the causes of death of infants under one year
of age, classified according to age. It will be noticed that
prematurity and debility are the chief causes, and in my opinion
the death-rate from these will not be much reduced until medical
research has determined the exact reason for these conditions.
While the very satisfactory fall in infant mortality may be
largely ascribed to the growth of infant welfare work and extended
knowledge among parents of the dieting and care of their
infants, it must also be remembered that the climatic conditions
have not favoured the spread of infantile diarrhœa. When this
disease again makes its appearance to any considerable degree,
one may expect another rise in the death-rate among young
children.