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29
The percentage of these deaths to total births for the Wards, were :
St. James St. High St. Hoe St. Wood St. Northern.
4.7 8.7 8.8 4.7 3.6
And the percentage to total births :
10.4 7.4 7.6 9.4 7.4
Birth-rate:
29.4 27.4 21.4 23.6 27.0
The high percentage of these deaths in the St. James Street and
Wood Street Wards may be accounted for by the poor circumstances of
their people, and the more difficult social conditions under which many
of the mothers have to live; but why in well-to-do Hoe Street, with a
birth-rate of 21-4, should one in every six children born die in the
first month from 4Do such figures lend colour to the view that the taking of drugs to
prevent child-bearing is practised more by the better classes and
accounts for much of this mortality ?
Of the 59 illegitimate children born during the year 14 died,
equivalent to a mortality rate of 220 per 1,000, or more than double
that of legitimates.
Miss Davis, during the year, visited these and others born towards
the end of 1908. She reports that in the great majority of cases the
children were well looked after, and in pursuance of this work 163
home visits were made.
In the Children Act, 1908, are some excellent provisions for safeguarding
the lives of boarded-out children—many of them of this class
—but in the appointment of the Guardians of the Poor as the authority,
I fear much of its value is lost.
An occasional visit by a Poor-Law official to unwanted children is
insufficient, and the work could be much more efficiently carried out by
your Health Visitors.
The Act provides for combination lu with any other Local Authority
for the purpose of executing the provisions of the Act, and for defraying
the expenses thereof"; but no overtures have been made to your
Council to co-operate in the work.