Nutrition and child-bearing : [the Lloyd-Roberts lecture delivered at St. Mary's Hospital, Manchester, Oct. 24th., 1933] / by Edward Mellanby.

  • Mellanby, Edward, Sir, 1884-1955.
Date:
1933?]
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Nutrition and child-bearing : [the Lloyd-Roberts lecture delivered at St. Mary's Hospital, Manchester, Oct. 24th., 1933] / by Edward Mellanby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Reprinted from The Lancet, Nov. 18th, 1933, p. 1131. NUTRITION AND CHILD-BEARING* By Edward Mellanby, M.D. Camb., F.R.C.P. Lond., F.R.S. PROFESSOR OF PHARMACOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD ; PHYSICIAN, ROYAL INFIRMARY, SHEFFIELD In recent years the subject of child-bearing has become of greater public interest. There are several reasons for this increased interest, but the one which concerns us to-day is the mortality-rate and the high incidence of disease in mothers and infants incurred by this natural process. Four or five women die in each thousand births and, in spite of the great advance in medical knowledge in recent times, this figure becomes no smaller. For each woman who dies in or as the result of childbirth, a large number are seriously ill, suffering from all the well-known ailments of pregnancy and childbirth which need not be enumerated here. In addition to specific forms of illness, the general health of the average pregnant woman is so poor that it has become a general pre¬ sumption that she is an invalid at such times. Now if all women in pregnancy were ill, we would have to accept the situation without further cavil. Some women, however, even in this country, carry out their ordinary work during pregnancy and never have a moment’s illness throughout the period. Indeed in a few cases women are known to say that they are never so well as when pregnant. This surely ought to be the normal course, and even morning sickness, which is so common in pregnancy, should be regarded as an abnormality. It is our duty as medical men and scientists to find the cause of this undesirable state of affairs. Nor does this problem affect only the mother. The death-rate of infants in the first week of life is about 23-5 per thousand five births, while this figure is increased to about 33 per thousand if the first month of life be substituted for the first week. If stillbirth and death in the first two weeks are combined, the mortality-rate may be as much as 80 per thousand live births. It is disconcerting to find that this figure * The Lloyd-Roberts lecture delivered at St.Mary’s Hospital, Manchester, Oct. 24th, 1933.