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To make an approximate allowance for the way in which the sex and age distribution
of the local population differs from that for England and Wales as a whole, the birth rate
is multiplied by a comparability factor supplied by the Registrar-General normally, but
this cannot be done this year, nor can a comparison be made with the rest of the country.
But the variation of the corrected from the crude birth rate has never been more than 0.4,
which is not a highly significant difference.
Infant Mortality
Infant mortality, i.e. the number of children dying before reaching the age of one
year, fell slightly in 1964. Twenty-one infants died compared with 27 in 1963, giving a
rate of 18.12 per 1,000 live births compared with 22.13 in 1963. All died in hospital. Nineteen
infants (six male and thirteen female) died within the first four weeks after birth.
Twenty-three babies were stillborn in hospital, none at home, making a stillbirth rate of
19.8.
Table IV on page 69 gives causes of death in the stillborn.
Table V gives the causes of infant deaths under the age of one year. Graph B on page
13 shows the trend of the infant mortality rate since 1900.
Premature Infants
One hundred and four premature infants were born alive during the year; 101 were
born in hospital, and of these, 89 were surviving at the end of one month; 3 were born at
home or in a nursing home and all of these were surviving at the end of one month. There
were 13 premature stillbirths, all occurring in hospital.

Maternal Morbidity
Two cases of puerperal pyrexia were notified direct to the Department during 1964;
in addition 62 cases were notified to other authorities.
The classification of puerperal pyrexia is "any febrile condition occurring in a woman
in whom a temperature of 100.4° Fahrenheit (38° Centrigrade) or more has occurred within
fourteen days after childbirth or miscarriage."
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