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Infant Mortality.
The total number of deaths under one year of age was 53. The rate
per 1,000 births was 66. The corresponding rate for England and Wales was
59, for London 66, and for the 143 smaller towns 55 per 1,000.
This shows an infant mortality rate considerably higher than last year
when it was 47. This is disappointing, but an analysis of the causes of death
shows a large amount of the rate to be due to factors probably at present
outside human control. For example, there were 19 more deaths due to
congenital defects and prematurity than in the previous year. This more than
accounts for the total increase in the deaths of children under one year of age,
which was 15.
These figures are even more striking when the deaths for the last quarter
of 1936 are analysed. Usually the number of still-births is approximately
equal to the number of deaths of infants under one year of age, but for the
last quarter of 1936, while there were 20 deaths of infants, there was only
one still-birth. As so many of these deaths from congenital causes and
prematurity (19 for the whole of the year) took place during the first week
of life, it is reasonable to assume that the care and attention the mother received
reduced the number of still-births, and, as a result of a number of weakly
children being born, the percentage of these dying increased, thereby increasing
the infant mortality rate.
The infant mortality rate in five-yearly periods since 1892 is shown in
Appendix C.
The various deaths from stated causes at ages under one year of age
are shown in the subjoined table.