OUR BABIES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 563, 30 April 1913, Page 3

OUR BABIES.

(By Hygeia)

Published under the auspices of the Society for the Health of Women and Children.

" It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom."

LOWERING OF THE INFANTILE DEATH RATE.

Althc-Jgh.the infantile death rate in New tfealano. waz one of the most favourable in the world, „":.n founder of the Society for the Health of womer. and Children had long felt that it was too high, and eight years ago wrote stating that in this Dominion "a generally diffused knowledge and recogni tion of infant requirements and maternal duties would save to the community one life per diem, and would correspondingly increase the strength and 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 rats among infants had be6n 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 enidemic is always liable to occur, and this may raise the death rate in a particualr 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 6£ 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 Dominion were similarly reduced from 8 per cent, to 4 per cent., it would mean a saving of nearly 900 lives every year. But that is not all. One must remember that reduction in the infantile death rate among other children also. Indeed, looking ahead, 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 allround fitness ot the 24,000 or 25,000 annual new 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 baby hood 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. Return showing how many children die in the first year of life for every 100 born:.—St. P«terbsurg and Moscow, 1910, 28 percent.; Vienna, 1910, 17; Berlin, 1910, 15£; Glasgow, 1910, 14; Paris, 1910, 12; London, 1910, 10 1-3; Stockholm and Christiana, 1910, 8|; Dunedin, average for seven years, 1900-7, 8; Dunedin, 1907-12, 64; Dunedin, 1909 12, 6; Dunedin, 1910 12, 5; Dunedin, 1911-12, 4. The foregoing figures for Dunedin are reckoned to the end of April, the original close of the Dunedin Socitey's year, not to the end of the official year. N.B.—The reason for -contrasting groups of years instead of giving merely individual years for Dunedin is to show tne stable and sustained decline in the infantle death rate from 1907 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 9J per cent but this contrast would have been misleading. Note the extreme rarge of infantile mortality from the death within a

year of more tban a quarter of the children born in St. Petersburg and Moscow to the death of only one in 25 for Dunedin.

The figures are almost as striking if taken for cuuntries instead of cities. Thus the latest annual statistics available show that out of 1000 children born three died in the first year of life:-In Russia, about 250, Germany and Austria, about 175, England and Wales for 1910 117, Norway 1908 76, New Zealand 1911 56. 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 tabid 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."