[Report 1913] / Medical Officer of Health, Brighton County Borough.

  • Brighton (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1913] / Medical Officer of Health, Brighton County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/182 (page 11)
    CAUSAL CONDITIONS. In the third part of the Table on page 8 and in the diagram on the page opposite the mortalities from groups of diseases in the various classes of the infant population are compared. The illegitimate group are most severely affected by diarrhoea, having a mortality of 45, compared with the average of 19'5. There is no doubt that this is due in a great measure to hand feeding and also to the lack of motherly care. It is interesting to note that in the prematurity-atrophy and diarrhoea curves, the percentage drop in mortality in passing from illegitimates to the very poor is exactly the same in each case. Following the prematurity-atrophy and the diarrhoea curves, it is found that there is a gradual drop in the former, whilst in the latter there is a further steep descent between Groups I. and II., shewing that a very great deal can still be accomplished in Group I. (the poorest class) in the prevention of diarrhoea. This justifies our procedure in Brighton, which aims at intensive super- vision of the very poor, each infant being visited many times—this in preference to visiting a large number of children once or twice. S The curve of bronchitis is the most difficult to explain. According to this curve the illegitimate suffer less from respiratory diseases than Groups I. and II. The other marked feature of the curve is the large percentage falls in mortality as the curve passes from Group I. to Group IV., viz. :—between Groups I. and II, a fall of 36, between II. and III, a fall of 34, between III. and IV., the large fall of 59 per cent. Our explana- tion of the curve is that good housing influences enormously the mortality from respiratory diseases. We believe that just as better housing is one of the most potent influences in the reduction of the phthisis mortality, so it exercises a similar beneficial effect in the reduction of mortality from respiratory diseases in infants. According to this explanation the low death rate in the illegitimate group compared with that in Group I. is due to the illegitimates being housed better than the infants of our poorest classes. The curve also shews that, not only the housing of the very poor and unskilled workers, but also the housing of the artizan class requires considerable betterment before ideal conditions are reached. NOTIFICATION OF BIRTHS. The Notification of Births Act (see Table page 84) allows of early visits of the Health Visitors after the birth of children. Registration within three days of birth should take the place of the present notification and registration within six weeks, as there appears no real need for any dupli- cation. It would also be an advantage to have all still births registered. THE FEEDING OF INFANTS. This matter has been fully discussed in previous reports, and I propose this year to mention only one or two outstanding facts. The number of infants visited was 931, and the average number of visits to each was seven. 77 per cent, of the infants visited were breast fed to the end of six months. In 1913 a smaller number of infants were visited, but the visits were more frequent. It is believed that more real good can be done by confining our energies to a smaller number of families. BABIES’ WELCOME. In November, 1910, a Babies’ Welcome was started at the Pelham Institute, and mothers still come there once fortnightly. The meetings