[Report 1943] / Medical Officer of Health, Darlington County Borough.

  • Darlington (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1943
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1943] / Medical Officer of Health, Darlington County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/22 (page 7)
    “v ANNUAL REPORT, 1943. To the Chairman and Members of the Health Committee. Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, I have mueh pleasure in presenting my Eighteenth Annual Report on the health of the town. It is necessarily curtailed and condensed for national reasons, and one must wait for the more propitious days of peace before publishing the Registrar General’s or our own confidential figures showing the increased activities and development of our town and population. With pleasure, I can assure you the statistics are most satisfactory in this our fifth year of war when the enemy threatened all manner of evil visitations. Instead, we now see convincing signs of victory, with a sur- prising absence of epidemics or any serious deterioration in the nation’s physical well-being despite war-time worries, black-out, overcrowding, shortage of housing, food rationing, long hours of employment and anxiety over loved ones. The constant vigilance and extension of the Health Services, wise rationing, additional feeding facilities in British Restaurants, schools, works canteens and for young children and expectant mothers, have all played their part and should remain even in our post-war schemes. Births numbered 1,234, a rate of 16.0 per 1,000, which is not materially different from those of the preceding 5 years. Illegitimate births numbered 83—^a figure approximately dou])le the pre-war one—an unfortunate evidence of the laxity of morals and social behaviour. The pro])lem is growing and the figure for 1944 so far threatens to be doubled again so tliat adequate care and attention will be demanded from Welfare Organisations, Municipal and voluntary, for the sake of the unmarried mother, the broken homes and the unfortunate children. The term “ illegitimate ” was formerly a})plied only to children of unmarried mothers, but to-day one is conq)elled to have regard to those children born to mothers in wedlock where the husbands are absent from home and do not accept paternity. The Ministry of Health has drawn the attention of local authorities to the desirability of intensive social welfare for the supervision of these mothers and children who have to face a difficult future. It is an interesting observation on our present statistics with such a low birth rate, in anticipation of Beveridge’s Social Insurance Scheme, that the present population between 18 and GO years of age—the working and earning group—will liave to maintain in round figures an equal number outside these limits, mostly school children and pensioners. The infantile mortality rate was reasona])ly low, r)‘2.7 per 1,000 births. Even in the case of illegitimates, a high degree of welfare has always been maintained. Out of 83 illegitimates born, only 5 died during the year. Approximately 40% (550) of the children were born in the Greenbank Municipal Maternity Hospital which is increasing rapidly in popularity beyond its capacity of 36 beds.