[Report 1954] / Medical Officer of Health, Somerset County Council.

  • Somerset (England). County Council.
Date:
1954
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1954] / Medical Officer of Health, Somerset County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/74 (page 14)
    reason of lack of accommodation or lack of adequate domestic help. If, after dealing with these categories, surplus accommodation remains unallocated it is offered to non-priority applicants. In one or two areas of the County direct admissions for social reasons appear to be arranged with¬ out reference to the Health Department. Of the 7,001 births which occurred (89 fewer than last year), 2,274 or 32% were domicil¬ iary confinements, as compared with the 33% domiciliary figure for 1953. Maternal Mortality. Again I am happy to report a low maternal mortality figure — 2 deaths having occurred — one in hospital and one in domiciliary practice. This represents a figure of .28 per 1,000 births and again reflects the high standard of obstetric work in the County, and careful supervision and accurate and early diagnosis of abnormality. Stillbirths. The stillbirth rate of 20.1 per 1,000 total births is somewhat lower than the figure of 24.0 for the country as a whole. The County stillbirth rate for the past five years has been — 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 24.2 20.1 22.3 17.3 20.1 Among the causes of the 143 stillbirths which occurred — 21 were due to Gross Abnormality. 27 were due to Severe Maternal Toxaemia. I am grateful to doctors and nurses, whether in domiciliary practice or in hospital, for so kindly supplying reports on stillbirths, and this has made possible the analysis of causes of this condi¬ tion. Infant Mortality. Here again I am gratified to report a low figure — Country as a whole. 1953 — 21.8 per 1,000 Live Births 1953 — 26.8 1954 - 22.6 ” ” ” ” 1954 - 25.5 This again reflects the high standard, not only of infant care but of ante-natal care, and has been achieved by the combined efforts of each member of the team — general practitioner, obstetrician, paediatrician, midwife, nurse and health visitor, all of whom must note this low infant mortality rate with pleasure and gratification. Neo-natal death rate. The figure of 16.5 per 1,000 live births remains about the same level as in 1953. As is seen in the attached tables, prematurity continues to account for nearly 45% of the neo-natal deaths. It must be recorded that of these numbers an appreciable proportion were of less than 28 weeks gestation and were therefore not considered viable. For the purpose of these analyses of causes of death it has been necessary to obtain reports from hospitals, from medical practitioners, and Nurse/Midwives, and again I would like to express my thanks to them for their co-operation and for making it possible to include these de¬ tails in my report.