BABIES’ DEATHS IN PRAMS

Grey River Argus, 21 January 1948, Page 5

BABIES’ DEATHS IN PRAMS

LONDON, January 10. Alarmed at the number of baby deaths in Britain last year, the Ministry of Health has launched a “Dont leave baby feeding alone” campaign. The Ministry gave the campaign that title because more than 400 babies died of suffocation while feeding in their prams last year—an increase of 155 over 1946. The Ministry stated that many of the deaths occurred when the babies were left in their prams, with a botle to keep them quiet, while their mothers were standing in the food queues. Suffocation usually occurred when the baby fell asleep with unswallowed milk in its mouth. The chairman of the Battersea Health and Child Welfare Association, Cr. Miss G. A. Coles, commenting on the Ministry’s campaign, said: “The increase is entirely due to the queues mothers have to join to get enough food to-day. “They forget that the babies are liable to choke and they find it easier to leave them at home or in a pram outside the shop. “I have seen babies with bottles in their mouths outside shops for half an hour. Mothers have too muck', to do —sometimes they leave baby in a pram in the garden with a bottle to keep him quiet."