Statistical analysis of infant mortality and its causes in the United Kingdom / by Helen M. Blagg.

  • Blagg, Helen M.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Statistical analysis of infant mortality and its causes in the United Kingdom / by Helen M. Blagg. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    disease ” (Report of Medical Officer for Croydon, 1908. See also Table IX.). From statistics given in the Croydon report, it is seen “ that diarrhoea is about seven times more prevalent among infants under six months of age fed on cows’ milk than on those fed on the breast alone, while the incidence on infants fed on condensed milk is twice as high as on those fed on ordinary cows’ milk and fourteen times as high as on the breast-fed. It cannot therefore be 'too strongly urged,” the medical officer concludes, “that breast-feeding is by far the most important means of checking diarrhoea, though under urban conditions it will not entirely prevent the disease, unless all the other requirements of domestic hygiene are attended to.” It has already been noted that diarrhoea is very much more fatal in urban than in rural districts, and in pottery or textile towns than in towns with ordinary mixed industries. {See Tables VII. and VIII.) This is largely owing to the fact that the mothers go out to work, and do not feed their babies themselves, and also to the bad sanitary conditions which prevail in some of these towns. Of the 102 babies who died of diarrhoea in Longton in 1908, only 57 were reported as having mothers at home, 52 mothers went to work, 10 were absent for other causes, 49 of the infants were fed with long- tubed bottles, and only 18 were breast-fed ; 47 of the houses had open ash-pits or none at all, 51 cesspools, 24 hand-flushed pans dirty and out of order, only 7 had water-closets, and 20 hand-flushed pans good. These figures thoroughly bear out all the facts previously stated. The fact is, the present generation of medical officers is fighting against the evils created by the lax administration of local authorities in the past, and against the terrible ignorance and obstinacy which prevails among many in the working classes. There is no panacea against infant mortality, only the old common-sense rules as to the need for fresh air, cleanliness, sunlight, and proper food.