Infantile Mortality Sets Lower Record

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 348, 8 May 1928, Page 12

Infantile Mortality Sets Lower Record

BEST IN THE WORLD BIRTH-RATE ALSO FALLS WELLINGTON. To-day. Discussing the infant mortality in the monthly “Abstract of Statistics,” published this evening, th» Government Statistician states that in the study of the vital statistics of New Zealand for re. cent years, three outstanding features immediately present themselves, the constant decline in the birthrate, the maintenance of the general death-rate at an exceedingly low level, and the continued reduction in the already astonish-ingly-low infant mortality rate. Broadly speaking, it may be said ofl the first two that they are compensatory, inasmuch as the decrease in both tends to maintain the rate of natural increase fairly steady, albeit the move« ment in this latter rate is also down, wards. Again, the fall in the birth-rate has an indirect bearing upon the reduction in the infajjt mortality rate. The infant death rate a 1,000 births fell is 1927 to 38.74, a phenomenally low leytl never hitherto approached, cither in this country or any other. The n-om-ber of deaths of infants under one year fell from 1,225 in 1923 to 1,080 last year and the rate a 1.000 from 43.8 to SS.7L The highest death rate »monsr infants has always occurred in the first month of life, and the death rate for infants of one month has shown little im* provement for many years. Infantile diseases that can be combated openly have shown a definite sponsc to strenuous < ampaigns launched against them, hut much has to be done in ante-nata! treatment. Of the total deaths during the first month the majority occur in the first week, and of those an exceedingly high proportion occur in the first day. The rate of infant mortality in the South Island is consideraoly higher than in the North, and Canterbury has the highest rate of individual districts, Southland being the lowest. The inclusion of stillbirths raises infant mortality rate very considerably, but does not offset the general downward tendency, in spite of the fact that the stillbirth rate has an upward trend.