MATERNAL MORTALITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 239, 9 October 1934, Page 12

MATERNAL MORTALITY.

HEAVIEST IN WEALTHY AREA

Many women will share the surprise of Mr. Neville Chamberlain, expressed in his speech at the opening of the Maternity and Child Welfare National Conference at Birmingham, when, in pointing out the drop in the infant mortality rate from l.V> per 1000 in 1893 to GO at'the present time, he emphasised that the statistics of maternity mortality showed no improvement whatever. Mr. Chamberlain said he was puzzled and baflled by the failure to achieve progress, and added that it was a remarkable fact that the heaviest rate of maternal mortality in the London area was in the wealthier districts. This showed, -aid Mr. Chamberlain, that this disease could not be accounted for by poverty or lack of education. There was something else, and he could not help feeling that there was some as yet undiscovered factor, perhaps unsuspected, at work—it might be connected with diet or individual psychology— which had not been isolated. A gynaecologist who has been speaking to the newspapers on this subject says that "the trouble is that most mothers treat child birth as an affair of no importance, and neglect to take the most ordinary precautions. Among the wealthier classes it is particularly noticeable that until the last moment they carry on with their ordinary round of life, drinking too many cocktails, sitting up too late and smoking excessively." This is an obviously exaggerated statement, because the overwhelming majority of women have a deep concern in regard to their offspring, and certainly do not drink or smoke too much. But the fact remains that this mortality.among highly-nurtured women is certainly not diminishing.