OUR BABIES

Otago Witness, Issue 3085, 30 April 1913, Page 62

OUR BABIES

Bt Hyqkia.

Published under the auspices of the Society lor the Health ol Women and | Children. “ It is wiser to put up a fence at the top o( a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottcim.” I

LOWERING OF THE INFANTILE DEATH RATE. Although the infantile death rate in New Zealand was one of the most favourab.e in the world, the founder of the Society for the Health of Women and Children had long felt that it '<as too high,- and eight years ago wrote stat.ng that in this dominion “ a generally diffused knowledge and recognition of infant requirements and maternal duties would save to the community one life per diem, and would coirespondingly increase tue strength a.nd vitality of the rest of the rising generation. From time to time, after the Society had been working for some years, it was remarked that the death rate among infants had been steadily going down, and many of the Society’s friends wondered why no particular mention was made of the fact; but it was thought that a considerable * period should elapse before quoting statistics, because some grave epidemic is always liable to occur, and this may raise the death rate in a particular year. However, after five years’ work the figures were - taken out, and the following is quoted from one, of the speeches,delivered at the annual meeting of the Dunedin Society in May last year: — The Society for the Health of Women and Children was founded just five years ago. Taking the seven years from 1900 to 1907, the average death rate among children under one year in Dunedin and suburbs was 8 per cent. For the last five years the average has been 6i per cent.'; for the last three years, 6 per cent.; for the last two years, 5 per cent. ; and for the last year, 4 per cent. If. the infantile death rate for the whole Domnion were similarly reduced from 8 per cent, to 4 per cent., it would mean a saving of nearly 900 lives every year. But tliat is not all. One must remember • . that reduction in the infantile death rate involves a reduction in the death rate among other children also. Indeed, looking ancad, it means a lower death rate throughout the whole community. But the Society is less concerned in reducing the death rate than is improving the health of the people. As a Health Society we are more interested in firmly establishing the all-round fitness of the 24.000 or 25,000 annual now arrivals who will live than we are in reducing the ■ potential deaths from 2000 to 1000. However, the problems are practically identical, since the simple hygienic measures which tend to prevent death in babyhood are also the measures which lay • the'foundations of strong, healthy minds in sound, enduring bodies for those who survive to be our future men and women.

for countries instead of cities. Thus the latest annual statistics available show that out of 1000 children born there died m st year of life; — In Lussia (about) ... .. 250 In Germany and Austria (about) 115 In England and Wales (for 1910) ... HJ In Norway (1908) 76 New Zealand (1911) ••• - Next to New Zealand, the Norwegian infantile death rate is the lowest in the world. This is attributed to the fact that in Norway nearly all babies are suckled. The Registrar-general for the Dominion, referring to a comprehensive world-wide statistical table given in the latest Official Year Book for New Zealand, says: “This table, giving the rates of infantile mortality in various countries and cities, shows that, as regards the preservation of infant life, far better conditions obtain in New Zealand than elsewhere.”

* TABLE SHOWING HOW MANY CHILDREN DIE IN THE FIRST YEAR OF LIFE FOR EVERY HUNDRED BORN.

N.B.—The reason (or contrasting groups of years, Instead of giving merely individual years for Dunedin, Is to show the stable and sustained decline in the Infantile Death Rate from 1307 onward. The fall would have appeared more striking had the four later periods been compared, not with the average of the preceding seven years, but only with the year 1907, when the death rate was 9i per cent., but this contrast would have been misleading. .

N.B.—The reason for contrasting groups of years instead of giving merely individual years for Dunedin is to snow the stable and sustained cjeclino in the infantile death rate from 1907 onward. The fall would have appeared l more striking had the four later periods been compared, not with the average of the preceding seven years, but only with the year 1907, when tho death rate was 9£ per cent. ; but this contrast would have been misleading. Note the extreme range of infantile mortality from the death within a year of more than a quarter of tho children born in St. Petersburg and Moscow to the death of only one in 25 for Dunedin. The figures arc almost as striking if taken