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PREMATURE BIRTHS
There were 53 premature births notified during the year, 47 of whom
survived one month.
Below is a summary of the notifications:—
(a) Born at home 4
(b) Born in hospital or nursing home 49
The number of those born at home:—
(a) Who were nursed entirely at home 4
(b) Who died during the first 24 hours —
(c) Who survived at the end of one month 4
The number of those born in hospital or nursing home:—
(,a) Who died during the first 24 hours 4
(b) Who survived at the end of one month 43
COMPARATIVE STATISTICS, 1963
Births. Once again the live birth rate is well below the national
figure - 12.9 per 1,000 population compared with 18.2. The reason for
this cannot change in a brief twelve months and until we have an adult
population of much lower average age this figure will not undergo
substantial change.
It is satisfactory to note, however, that the still birth rate of 13.6
per 1,000 total births is also below the national average of 17.2.
Deaths. Merton and Morden's death rate in 1963, at 12.2 per
1,000 population, is exactly the same as the national figure, but this
total is not reached the same way and it is noted that deaths from
coronary disease and from carcinoma of lung, at 3.08 and 0.61 respectively,
per 1,000 population are above the national figures of 2.29 and
0.52 respectively, the former also being above the 1962 figure of 2.97 and
the latter showing an improvement on the 1962 figure of 0.79.
It would not have been surprising if the local death rate had been
higher than the national one for 1963, when it is considered that our
population is loaded towards the higher age groups in which the extreme
weather of the early weeks of the year takes its toll.
For another year both the maternal and infant mortality rates are
satisfactory by comparison, although the latter is not so good as the
1962 figure of 13.8.
Notifications of Infectious Disease. The year 1963 was a measles
epidemic year which accounts for the fact that the notification rate was
11.13 per 1,000 compared with 3.81 in 1962. There is little of note in
other notification figures but the incidence of puerperal pyrexia at 1.13
per 1,000 total births, compares most favourably with the figure for
England and Wales of 7.44 and, taken in conjunction with the maternal
and infant mortality rates, reflects most creditably on the practice of
these branches of medicine in the district.
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