Annual report (abridged) of the Medical Officer of Health 1916.

  • Kensington (London, England). Royal Borough.
Date:
[1917]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Annual report (abridged) of the Medical Officer of Health 1916. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    2 Notification of Births.—Of the registered births 2,861 occurred in Kensington, and of this number 2,560, or 89 per cent., were notified to the Medical Officer of Health within 36 hours, or at most a few days of their occurrence. The total number of births notified, including still births which are not registerable, was 2,812. Details are given in the following Table:— Source of Notification. Number of Births Notified. Total Births. Still Births. Live Births. Midwives 1,448 33 1,415 344 10 334 Parents 713 26 Medical Practitioners 687 6 Other Persons 124 130 75 Births in the Borough 2,635 2,560 4 Institutions outside the Borough 177 173 79 2,812 Total 2,733 Midwives.—Slightly over one half of the births were notified by midwives. Births Notified by Midwives. Nature of Practice. Number of Midwives. Cases per Midwife. Total Cases. Queen Charlotte's Hospital 3 permanent 105—241 549 2 temporary 27— 35 Extern Department Kensington Maternity Association 2 permanent 41—101 192 2 temporary 24— 26 Kensal Gospel Mission 2 48 15— 33 Private practice 3 133—148 418 5 10— 60 143 „ „ 35 1— 9 98 „ „ Total private practice 43 659 ... Totals 54 1,448 ... Deaths.—The net deaths belonging to the borough numbered 2,337, and were equivalent to a death rate of 15 - 4 per thousand, as compared with a death rate of 14 - 3 in the ten years 1901-10 (vide Appendix, Table I. and Table V. in previous reports). The mortality in the several wards has already been shown in Table A. The principal causes of death in the several age periods of life are set out in Table 111., Appendix. Infantile Mortality.—The deaths among infants under the age of one year numbered 258, the infantile mortality rate being equivalent to 85 deaths per 1,000 births. This figure is no less than 7 per 1,000 below the lowest infantile death rate ever recorded in Kensington, namely 92 in the year 1912. The steady reduction in the number of deaths in infants in each succeeding quinquennium has been due to the work of the Council's Lady Health Visitors and to that of the five voluntary schools for mothers and the baby clinic. The exaggerated fall in 1916 has been due to the absence of hot weather and drought in the summer and early autumn months. The following Table shows the mortality among infants in the different wards:—
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