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CHILDBIRTH.
Twenty-three women died either in childbed or from some one of
the diseases following parturition; six had Puerperal Fever or
Blood Poisoning; one had rupture of the uterus, another inversion
of that organ; four had Peritonitis; two died from Convulsions
and one from Flooding ; most of the others died from intercurrent
disease; but the fatal termination was, in the opinion of the Medical
attendant, accelerated by exhaustion following labour.
The Registrar General in his annual summary for 1886 notes
that "The deaths of parturient women from Puerperal Fever and
other incidents of childbirth were considerably below the average,
oven when the diminished birth rate is taken into account. In the
years 1871-80, these deaths were 4.5 per thousand births; but in
1886 the proportion had fallen to 3.6 per thousand; and this fall
in the deaths of mothers contrasts with the continuous rise already
noted under the heading of premature birth. The mortality from
this cause in 1871-80 was 10.3 per thousand births; but the rate