MATERNITY DEATHRATE LOWERED

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 58, 31 May 1927, Page 9

MATERNITY DEATHRATE LOWERED

MARKET IMPROVEMENT BLACK YEAR OF 1920 Press Association. WELLINGTON, Monday. JN the year 1920 the maternity deathrate in the Dominion reached the high figure of 6.4 S for every thousand living infants born. Wide attention was drawn to the position by the then Minister of Health, culminating in an investigation and the taking of special measures by the Department of Health with a view to bringing about an Improvement in this one section of New Zealand’s vital statistics which did not compare favourably with those of some other countries. This year the maternal mortality rate is 4.25 a thousand living births. Each of the last six years represented a distinct improvement over the abnormally high rate of 1920. The death rate for the past seven years was as follows:—1920, 6.48; 1921, 5.08- 1922 5.14; 1923, 5.11; 1924, 5.0; 1925, 4.65’’ 1926, 4.25. The explanation of the high rate in 1920 appears to be that in that year the proportion of first births was abnormally high, viz., one in every three, as compared with one in every four in 1919. It may be noted here, however that in 1921, when the rate of maternal mortality was only 5.08 a thousand births, the proportion of first births was again high, so that probably some other factor was partially responsible for the number of cases of puerperal septicaemia which was particularly high in 1920, viz., 67, as compared with only 48 in 1921. New Zealand is now seventh in the list of the following 21 countries in deaths from puerperal causes in various countries:

ALL PUERPERAL CAUSES Country Period per cent Denmark . . .. Netherlands .. . Italy 1919-23 1919-23 1920-24 England & Wales 1920-24 New Zealand Australia 1920-24 Irish Free State 1920-24 uermany . . . . 1919-23 5.04 Northern Ireland 1920-24 Switzerland .. 191S-22 Canada .. 1921-24 Scotland . . . . United States 1919-23 Chile 1919-23 British Guiana 1922-24 Ceylon .. .. 1920-24 19.92