Infant mortality in Scotland / the report of a sub-committee of the Scientific Advisory Committee.
- Great Britain. Department of Health for Scotland. Scientific Advisory Committee on Medical Administration and Investigation.
- Date:
- 1943
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Infant mortality in Scotland / the report of a sub-committee of the Scientific Advisory Committee. Source: Wellcome Collection.
43/88 page 41
![It is impossible to make reliable deductions from the hospital figures without information on the nature of the hospital experience.. The relative proportions of booked and emergency cases will greatly influence the general rate. This is shown by the Aberdeen figures where the incidence and the effect of prematurity in booked cases approach most nearly to the American. The other extreme is shown by Glasgow Maternity Hospital where a high proportion of the births are in selected abnormal and emergency cases. In contrast with the stillbirth rate of 108 for those delivered in hospital, the Outdoor Service of the Hospital, dealing with the normal residuum of the cases under supervision, recorded in the same year 3,202 births with only 77 stillbirths, i.e. 26 per 1,000. With these reservations, the incidence of prematurity in Scottish hospital experience Table 32.—Comparison of Stillbirth Rates and Incidence of Prematurity i Stillbirth rates. Total births : Per oie Premature| Full-time number.| Pre™eature. per 1,000 | per 1,000 | General premature | full-time | rate. births. births. New York State ones New York City), 1936. 84,515 a 249 15°1 28°1 [Yerushalmy, 1938.] New York State (excluding New York City), 1936-38. . | 258,525 5°6 — — 27°8 [Yerushalmy, 1940.] Johns Hopkins Hospital, Balti-. more, 1896-1936 . 18,801 7:0 185 33°7 44:3 [Peckham, 1938] White only. Chicago Lying-in sas aes 1931-38 17,728 6°3 — — 22°7 [Potter and Adair, 1938] Cincinnati General Hospital (one year) . : 2,481 11:0 143 10°4 25°0 [Anderson e al., 1941 | Edinburgh Maternity aa 1939-40. Pe ea OO 12°3 322 43°9 78°] [McNeil, 1942]. | | Aberdeen Maternity Hospital, | 1941-42: | Prelediy ee, he Bed 8°8 Hg * t. 193 32°7 | Emergency ‘ : 507 39°4 280 140-1 195°3 Total. | 8,848 13-4 220 32:1 57°38 (Baird, unpublished.] | Glasgow Royal Maternity Hos- pital, 1941 . 3,094 — =18 — 107°6 [Report for 1941. ] . | appears to be higher than in America. The increases in stillbirth rate due to prematurity are in all instances substantial, though less than for neonatal deaths. Further valuable evidence of the importance, for survival to birth and after, of antenatal development is given in Peckham’s study. Fig. 5, relating to white single births, is reproduced from his paper. | It shows that, for weights up to 1,200 g. (2-6 lb.), a falling stillbirth rate was compensated by a rising neonatal mortality, so that the two together remained stationary at about 90 per cent. of births. From 1,200 g. to 2,500 g. (5:5 Ib.) both rates decreased, neonatal more rapidly than stillbirth, but. the rates were not stabilised until the weight reached between 2,700 and 2,800 g. (about 6 Ib.). At this stage of development, the stillbirth rate was about 25 per 1,000 total births and the neonatal death rate 9 per 1,000 live births. Holland is the only country in which the stillbirth rate has reached Peck-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32174640_0043.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
