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Premature Infants
Seventy-five premature infants were born alive during the year; 63 were born in hospital
and of these, 46 were surviving at the end of one month; 12 were born at home and
11 of these were surviving at the end of one month. There were 16 premature still births,
all occurring in hospital.
These figures are far from pleasing—showing that not only has there been a further
rise in the number of premature births—but also of premature still-births, that 10% of
the total births (live and still) were prematurely born, and that one third of the premature
infants born either were born already dead or lived only a very short time. Comparable
figures for the past five years are:—

These figures also seem to indicate that a premature infant stands a better chance of
surviving if it is born in its own home, though of course, premature births occurring in
hospital often happen because of maternal ill-health—thus the premature infant is more
likely to be inherently weaker than the premature infant produced at home.
The classification of a premature infant is given to a child born prematurely, or which
weighs less than 5½ lbs. at birth. The figures for premature births and stillbirths are both
showing an upward trend, the corresponding figures in 1960 were 60 premature live births
and 8 premature stillbirths.
Maternal Morbidity
Two cases of puerperal pyrexia were notified direct to the Department during 1961—
in addition 35 cases were notified to other authorities, and subsequently reported here—
34 of these occurred in Hillingdon Hospital and one in Hammersmith Hospital.
The classification of puerperal pyrexia is "any febrile condition occurring in a woman
in whom a temperature of 100.4° Fahrenheit (38° Centigrade) or more has occurred within
fourteen days after childbirth or miscarriage".
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