[Report 1894] / Medical Officer of Health, Tipton U.D.C.

  • Tipton (England : Parish). Urban District Council.
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1894] / Medical Officer of Health, Tipton U.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/34 (page 13)
    ledge that the child will be bom before the regulation period, must influence the vital condition of the mother and of the coming offspring, and tend to cause its premature death. Only a very small percentage of married women here do any commercial work. Some few girls work in the brickyards and a very few on breeze and pit banks, as a rule here the women only do house work, and are seldom away from home, and fortunately it is considered a point of honour with them to suckle their own offspring. This gives us an infantile mortality rate comparing rather favourably with other artisan districts, where women work away from home and in consequence can only half suckle their infants. From personal ob¬ servation T do not consider the death of an infant a few days old with unmixed regret, often it is only an example of the selection of the fittest to survive. I have known so many weakly infants reared carefully, only to die close on to maturity ; others who have married—and such weakly constitutioned people usually marry early—give birth to other w^eakly children, some of whom die early, others who perpetuate the strain of weakly, scrofulous, and consumptive people, who live to cause great expense, to fill our hospitals, linger in our infirmaries, and to generally lower the vitality of the race. When an infant is well over the troubles attending childbirth, then our plain duty is to have it nourished nroperly, kept warm, and for its surroundings to be as healthy and clean as it is possi¬ ble to have them. A further analysis of the Tabulated Statistics shews— Births . . o55 Males . . 540 Females Of the Registered Deaths 254 were Males, 232 Females. 428 were certified by qualified practitioners 27 were uncertified 31 were buried after an inquest had been held by the Coroner. Table of causes of Deaths, classified as to disease and age. Under 5 Over 5 Total Scarlatina 3 0 3 Diphtheria I 1 2 Membranous Croup . . 3 1 4 Typhoid Fever 0 1 1 Puerperal (or Childbed Fever) 0 1 1 Erysipelas 1 0 1 Measles 18 2 20 Whooping Cough 8 0 8 Diarrhoea 20 1 21 Rheumatic Fever 0 2 2 Phthisis 2 23 25