[Report 1918] / Medical Officer of Health, Gloucestershire County Council.

  • Gloucestershire (England). County Council. n 50061360.
Date:
1918
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1918] / Medical Officer of Health, Gloucestershire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/48 (page 10)
    The information necessary for distributing the infantile deaths according to age at and cause of death is not yet avail- able. It is probable, however, that the conclusions I drew in my Annual Report for 1916 still hold good, namely:-— “ (a) The main causes to which mortality was attributed are premature births and marasmus (20% each) respiratory diseases (16%) and diseases of the digestive tract (10%), which together account for two- thirds of all the deaths. (b) In addition to the above infants who died within a year of birth, about 30 per 1,000 living children were born dead (this figure has now been reduced to 20 per 1,000). (c) A closer analysis shows that the saving of child life has occurred at ages over one month, but that at ages below one month, the mortality of infants had actually increased in each of the first three weeks of life. . . . . The lesson from this would appear to be that attention re- quires to be particularly directed to ante-natal work, skilled attention to mothers in their confinements and special care of infants in the first few weeks of life.” This appears to be the experience in the country generally, for the Registrar General observes in his Annual Report for 1917— “ It is in the first month of life alone that the methods of the last 20 years have not met with conspicuous success, and it is precisely here that the newer methods now being evolved for the promotion of pre-natal hygiene, &c., should have their greatest effect.” MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE. The scheme adopted in 1916 for the promotion of Maternity and Child Welfare has been described in previous Reports; at the meeting of the County Council on the 21.st October, 1918, the scope of the scheme was considerably extended and pro- vision was made for practically all the branches included in the circular of the Local Government Board (M. & C.W. 4) dated 9th August, 1918. The extended scheme includes: — 1. Administration. At present assistance is given by the Superintendent of the County Nursing Association, but the appointment of a lady doctor will probably be desirable. 2. Inspection of Midwives. This is at present undertaken bv the Superintendent of the County Nursing. Association and the whole-time County Nurses..