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74
ANALYSIS OF INFANT DEATHS, 1951
Dr. Melville Watkins reports as follows on the classification
of the 37 infant deaths that occurred in 1951 :—
Inevitable Unavoidable Preventable Total
Number 6 22 9 37
Percentage 16.2 59.5 24.3 100
I he general trend remains the same as in the previous two
years, the unavoidable deaths accounting for over half the numbers
whilst the percentage of preventable deaths remains approximately
the same as last year.
The main cause of inevitable deaths was congenital abnormalities,
and that of unavoidable deaths atelectasis and prematurity.
This was the case during the previous two years.

There has been no significant decline in the death rate during
the first month of life and the causes for these neo-natal deaths
remain much the same. Most of these are classified as inevitable
and unavoidable. The factors which induced a general reduction
in the over-all infant mortality during recent years have obviously
not influenced the neo-natal death rate to any appreciable degree.
RETROLENTAL FIBROPLASIA
This rather curious condition was first observed about 1936 in
America and is now found in premature infants in this country.
It is an opacity situated behind the lens of the eye which may
develop rapidly after birth and often leads to complete and permanent
blindness in both eyes.
The condition is limited almost entirely to premature babies
with a birth weight of two to three lbs. Two such cases were
reported in 1952. The first was J.C., a female, born at home on
the 12th May, 1951, with a birth weight of 3 lbs. 6 ozs. ; she was
admitted to Thorpe Coombe a few hours later and blindness was
diagnosed in September. The baby was retained in Thorpe
Coombe until the 2nd January when she weighed 16 lbs. 6 ozs.
After very considerable difficulty a foster-mother was found to look
after the baby pending further examination at the age of 3 years
for admission to a Sunshine Home.
The second case was a female born in Thorpe Coombe on
the 17th September, 1951, with a birth weight of 2 lbs. 123/4 ozs.
The mother had been admitted some three weeks before the baby