Neonatal mortality and morbidity / report by a joint committee of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the British Paediatric Association.

  • Joint Committee on Neonatal Mortality and Morbidity.
Date:
1949
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Neonatal mortality and morbidity / report by a joint committee of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the British Paediatric Association. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    23/96 page 21
    of several hundred babies each year. The reasons are clear: lack of care of the mother during pregnancy and labour, and lack of care of the newborn baby by the mother. The neglect of the mother is usually the fault of the woman herself and of her relatives, who tend to prefer secrecy to medical and nursing attention; both mother and baby suffer on this account. The baby is usually unwanted; the mother is less inclined to breast-feed it, and may be prevented from doing so by the necessity for earning a living. Often it is in the care of those who have not sufficient interest in its welfare to give it the best chance of survival. The solution of this problem is largely one of education—education of the young in matters of sex and in the proper employment of leisure. Facilities for healthy recreation must be provided as well as proper living conditions at home. There should be efficient medical and nursing care available for all unmarried mothers and their babies; and the general care of these women should be directed by those who can show the necessary sympathy and encouragement. When the baby is unwanted and there seems little chance of its being properly cared for, adoption should be arranged as early in its life as possible. (c) Economic CONDITIONS There is clear evidence that economic and social factors play an important part in both stillbirth and neonatal mortality, The Registrar-General recog- nises five major social classes made up as follows:—Class I, members of the professions, commissioned officers and well-to-do people concerned with shipping, finance, etc.; Class, II, intermediate between Class I and skilled workers; Class III, skilled workers; Class IV, intermediate between skilled and unskilled workers; Class V, unskilled workers. In the period 1930-32 the neonatal death rate among legitimate children in England and Wales was 50 per cent. higher in Class V than in Class I, and the stillbirth rate was about 30 per cent. higher, while the infant mortality rate for the age group 6-12 months was four times as high. The figures for the neonatal death rate for the 1930-32 period are: All Classes | Class I Class II Class III Class IV Class V 30-2 21°+7 27-2 29°4 31-9 32°5 In so far as the total loss of child life is concerned, these figures become even more significant when it is realised that Class V is a much larger group than Class I, and in any case the gross reproduction rates in the two classes at that time were about 1.3 and 0.7 respectively. The results of a special analysis for 1939, kindly supplied by the Registrar General for England and Wales, are set out in the following table and confirm the findings of the earlier period. ia IV V Classes- Stillbirths per 1,000 live births : (a) Crude... 24°4 33°4 35°6 37°6 39°7 36-2 ma) With fixed weighting by mother’s age and birth : order are Lee 24°0 31-7 35°8 38-8 40°3 | 36-2 Neonatal Mortality... Fr ead dials: 234 25°4 27°7 30-1 27+1
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3