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The Council's medical officers visit the 9 "family group" children's homes and the
2 residential nurseries, where they examine the children at regular intervals and are able
to give guidance to the house mothers on matters relating to the children's health and
development. They also undertake the regular medical examinations of children boarded out
in West Ham, and the Senior Assistant Medical Officer in particular is available for
consultation on matters on which the Children's Officer seeks medical advice.
Vital Statistics
The following are the statistics for 1957 compared with the provisional rates for
England and Wales which have been published by the Registrar General:-
For For
West Ham England and Wales
Stillbirth rate per 1,000 total births 17.85 22.5
Infant Mortality rate per 1,000 live births 19.31 23.1
Neonatal Death rate per 1,000 live births 15.90 16.5
Maternal Mortality rate per 1,000 live births
and stillbirths 0.74 0.47
The stillbirth rate and infant mortality rate (deaths of infants under 1 year per
1,000 live births) both compare favourably with the rates for England and Wales for 1957,
and are the lowest rates on record for the Borough. The previous lowest stillbirth rate
was 19.2 per 1,000 in 1949, and the previous lowest infant mortality rate was 21.5 per 1,000
in 1954. Whilst this is very satisfactory, it should be remembered that the numbers involved
are small, and these low rates may not have any special significance.
There were 44 stillbirths during the year; 18 were first babies. Of the known causes,
8 were recorded as due to pre-eclamptlc toxaemia, 5 to ante-partum haemorrhage, 10 to
congenital abnormalities, 3 to breech deliveries, 2 to prolapse of the cord, 3 to prematurity
and 1 to Rhesus incompatability. The following each accounted for one still birth - placenta
praevia; maternal pneumonia, atelectasis, and Ceasarean section.
There were 4 cases where the cause was suspected, but could not be asserted with any
confidence. These were cord round neck, Rhesus incompatability, and in 2 cases placental
insufficiency. There were 4 stillbirths in which the cause was entirely unknown.
Labour itself was said to be normal in 32 out of the 44 cases, and most of the
mothers were between 20 and 35 years.
The perinatal mortality rate (calculated from the number of stillbirths plus the
number of deaths in the first week of life) is a figure which is increasingly used as an
index of the loss of infant life due to factors acting in the ante-natal, natal and immediate
post-natal periods. For West Ham this was 31.6 in 1957 as compared with 35.5 in 1956 and
33.3 in 1955. Of the 37 West Ham babies who died in the first week of life, 30 were premature
and 16 were under 12 hours old.
Of 51 infant deaths (under 1 year) 42 occurred in infants who were under 4 weeks of
age, giving a neonatal death rate (number of deaths under 4 weeks per 1,000 live births) of
15.9 compared with 15.4 last year; of these infants 33 were premature.
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