Deaths in Childbirth The recent increases in maternal mortality, which
the House. of Commons discussed last. Monday, have been examined from many sides without yielding their secret. Strictly, there has been no increase upon 1914, the rate being 4.51 per thousand then as now ; but as the general• and infantile death-rates have both fallen far in the interval, the stationariness of the maternal rate is challenging. Certain politicians see in it an excellent text for discoursing about t` malnutrition," " means test," and the like. But the evidence suggests that these are quite irrelevant, the death-rate ih childbirth being actually higher at Bournemouth than at Gateshead. Defective . midwifery has unquestionably played a part ; and the criticisms which Mrs. Tate passed last Monday on the training of midwives and doctors impressed the House. of Commons a good deal. Another factor, perhaps not sufficiently allowed for, is the far greater proportion nowadays; of..first confinements. In parts of Southern England, where one-child families are becoming prevalent even among ..the working class, some temporary upward tendency in the rate woulkseern hard to avoid, since first confinements are inevitably the most dangerous.
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