Report of the proceedings of the National conference on infantile mortality : held in the Caxton hall, Westminster, on the 23rd, 24th, and 25th March 1908, president - Right Hon. John Burns.

  • National Conference on Infantile Mortality.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report of the proceedings of the National conference on infantile mortality : held in the Caxton hall, Westminster, on the 23rd, 24th, and 25th March 1908, president - Right Hon. John Burns. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    superficial critic would say, “Fridays, Saturdays, Mondays, wages, drink; drink, wages.” But out of 281 children suffocated in bed, or found dead in bed (20 cases only were due to suffocation) : there were no instances of culpable neglect or of crime. These deaths are not due to drink to the extent that is generally supposed. But they were due mainly to the habit of working-class mothers, which we have a right to condemn, which we are bound to alter and remove as soon as possible by the education of the mothers, marketing'on Fridays and Saturdays or on Mondays, or returning late from visits to relatives on Sundays, because we find on examination there are few if any cases after bank holidays, when I should say that the drink consumed per head was more than on Fridays, Saturdays, or Mondays in certain working-class districts. What is it due to ? (A Delegate—“ Over- crowding.”) No, it is not. It is due to the child being taken out by father and mother to market between 8 to 10, 9 to n, and 9 to 12 midnight, and the child gets a chill in the mother’s arms, acute catarrh is set up, stoppage of the air passage and bronchial tubes follows, with convulsions, heart failure, and other things induced by the exposure of the child in the cold night air, a practice that I sincerely hope working-class mothers will discontinue and abolish as soon as possible. I am very glad that our friend Canon Horsley, who knows the poor and whose knowledge of London, like Sam Weller’s, is extensive and peculiar, endorses that view, and would also agree as to the noxious character of the air in public-houses and its effect upon children. I now, Mr Chairman, come to practically my last points. What are the salient and broad facts that emerge from a consideration of this great subject? We find this. The other night when I had nothing particular to do I went through the wards of a London hospital at night-time with one of the medical officers. He took me into one of the wards where there were 80 to 90 children, and he said, “Mr Burns, look at the young rascals, aren’t they healthy and strong ? ” I said, “ Is that so ? ” and he said what is generally confirmed, that 80 to 90 per cent, of the babies are born healthy. That is the general view, the ante-natal conditions are less adverse than was formerly supposed, while good motherhood after birth of child is more necessary than ever as town life increases, as I have said before. No effort should be spared to make the life and lot of the mother well fitted for the children that are, and above all for the child that is to be. The year that includes expectation, and until the child is six months old—that is the year before and after birth of a child —in my judgment the mother should not be at work, but what home work she has to do should be light and suitable, and I believe that when a mother launches a child upon the world that child carries with it not only a good but the best gift that mortal can confer upon another. I believe that Lancashire, Yorkshire, and many other districts will have to keep the mother from outside work. I believe that after birth the mother must be at home as