Maternal Mortality The statistics of maternal mortality have long exposed
the fact that this was the most backward of our public health services, and the one in which comparison with foreign countries was least creditable. It is therefore satisfactory to hear from the Minister of Health that the number of maternal deaths per thousand mothers in 1936 was only 3.8, which is the lowest rate recorded since 1922. When the new Midwifery Act has been in operation rather longer, still better results may be expected. The recently-con- stituted Birkett Committee on abortion should have some suggestions of value to make on another aspect of the same problem. For, as Sir Kingsley Wood admitted, a pro- portion—he did not say what proportion—of the deaths are preventable. The Ministry of Health, under an energetic Minister such as himself, can do much, but the main line of attack must be through local maternity services. A vigorous campaign is still needed before we can approach the standard of, for example, some of the Scandinavian countries in this matter. The fact that four mothers still die for every thousand children born is a distressing factor in the problem of a shrinking population.
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