[Report 1947] / Medical Officer of Health, Glasgow.

  • Glasgow (Scotland)
Date:
1947
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1947] / Medical Officer of Health, Glasgow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    48/278 (page 48)
    milk preparation. The present position is a challenge to all Child Welfare and Public Health workers. At the invitation of the Health Committee Dr. Harold Waller visited the Corporation Clinics and Mater- nity Units in December, 1947, and gave various talks and demonstra- tions about breast-feeding. Plans are being made to develop special education and supervision of mothers at the ante-natal clinics and in the various maternity units to try to secure that more infants are breast-fed. Throughout the year the staff, both medical and nursing, gave many lectures and took part in other forms of health propaganda. The public are showing an increasing interest in health matters in general and in child welfare and parenthood in particular. INFANT MORTALITY. The number of deaths of infants after correction for inward and outward transfers was 1,989 compared with 1,588 for the previous year, an increase of 401. Births numbered 25,829 or 2,269 more than the total of 1946 so that there was a nett natural increase in the first year of life of 1,868 babies. The infant mortality rate, however, rose to 77 as compared with 67 for 1946. This rise is accounted for by the marked increase of cases of gastro-enteritis which occurred during the year. Although the incidence was fortunately not so high as in 1944, it was alarmingly high and accounted for the deaths of 560 infants. The following summary gives a comparison of the Infant Mortality rate with those of previous years :— 1939 ... 80 1944 ... ... 95 1940 ... 95 1945 ... ... 68 1941 ... Ill 1946 ... ... 67 1942 . . . ... 90 1947 ... ... 77 1943 ... 82 The rates previous to 1939 were usually in the region of 100 or more and these are given in the last column of Table XVIII in the Appendix. Details of the causes of male and female deaths for each quarter during the first year of life are given in Appendix Table XII. The information there given is summarised in the following statement,