Summary of lectures given at the second Summer School at Cambridge, 26th June-5th July, 1943 / the Women Public Health Officers' Association.

Date:
[1943?]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Summary of lectures given at the second Summer School at Cambridge, 26th June-5th July, 1943 / the Women Public Health Officers' Association. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    maximum of protein and Vitamin B, probably Vitamin E also. Others live almost entirely on rice, well polished and so containing a minimum of protein and Vitamin B or E. An enquiry showed that among those mothers who had a sufficienty of the wheat diet only 3 per cent. delivered premature infants, while among those who lived almost entirely on polished rice, 20 per cent. delivered premature infants. Rickets and Osteomalacia.—These are due to a lack of calcium or of Vitamin D, or both. In both cases the bones are deficient in calcium, and deformities occur which are frequently marked in the pelvis. Rickets is a disease of childhood, but the effects remain in adult life. Osteomalacia occurs in young adults, -especially during pregnancy, when the needs of the foetus cause calcium to be withdrawn trom the maternal bones. In both cases the delivery of the child is delayed, sometimes very seriously. During the delayed labour the child’s comparatively soft skull is compressed by the shortened pelvic diameters, and hemorrhage in the brain or other lesions may cause foetal death either before or shortly after birth. Or, during the delayed second stage, the contracting uterus compresses the placenta and umbilical cord, so stopping the placental circulation before the pulmonary circula- tion is established, and death results. Rickets is now less common and less severe in this country than formerly, but is still in minor degree a cause of delay in labour and of foetal death. Osteomalacia is rare in this country, but it is common in India and China. Maxwell, working in China, shows that the infants of osteomalacic mothers easily fall victims to rickets, especially in the mother’s later pregnancies, while Mellanby, working in.England, claims that the infants of mothers with a low calcium intake develop carious teeth unygually early. These are both instances of the fact that the foetus of a diseased mother may be born apparently healthy, but with insufhcient reserves. Anemia of Pregnancy.— The first type, most common in. this country, is due to a lack of ion-containing foods in the mother’s diet. The infants are usually born healthy, having received enough iron to produce the hemoglobin of the blood, but not to lay up the reserve store in the liver needed during the first year. Infantile anemia is likely to develop. The second variety is an acute condition which develops suddenly during the second half of pregnancy, due to the lack of some element in the food, not yet fully identified, but which is supplied if the mother is treated with liver or Marmite. This is very common in India and Africa, and is sometimes met in this country. It is a frequent cause of infant death, usually because it leads to premature delivery. Vitamin B Deficiency in an acute form is found in some Eastern and tropical countries where rice is the staple article of diet. Beri beri is a multiple neuritis with heart symptoms, and is due to a lack of foods containing Vitamin B. It frequently develops in pregnancy owing to the increased call for Vitamin B in that condition. The infant may be born healthy, but tends to develop beri beri during the first year. This is another instance of the lack of a reserve store laid up during intra
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