From Cradle to Grave: Health, Medicine and Lifecycle in Modern Britain (HI278)
Lecture 1: Birth and Death in Modern Britain: Infant Welfare to Incubator Babies
1.
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Infant Mortality
1836 - Birth and Deaths Registration Act.
1857 - Registrar-General began to report numbers of infant deaths.
1876-1899:
 Birth rate fell 14% from 35.5 to 30.5 (per 1,000 population).
 Infant mortality increased 7% from 146 to 156 (per 1,000 live births).
2.
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Social Medicine 1880-1930
Emergence of the idea of social and state responsibility for health.
Concerned with how social and economic conditions impacted on health, disease and medicine.
Efforts to develop state policies which improved social conditions, and provided health education and medical
services.
3.
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National efficiency, empire concerns, and eugenics
Boer War (1899-1902) – 40% of volunteers found unfit.
Committee of Physical Deterioration (formed 1903) recommended medical inspections for children in school,
free school meals for the poor, and training in ‘mother craft’.
Eugenics – Concerns that only the ‘wrong sorts’ were reproducing, weakening the nation and ‘race’.
4.
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Infant and Maternal Welfare
France as a leader in infant welfare – breast feeding campaigns and incubators.
Local health initiatives – eg. Huddersfield.
Increasing amount of advice given to poor mothers, but little material assistance.
The level of provision for maternal and infant services depended on where you lived.
5. Legislative Changes
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Notification of births act (1907). Made compulsory in 1915.
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Maternity and Child Welfare Act (1918) – required local authorities to set up a maternal and child welfare
committee, and enabled them to provide various services such as infant welfare centres, milk and food for needy
mothers, and employ professional midwives and health visitors.
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Ministry of Health (1919) – one of its 6 departments was devoted to child and infant care.
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Charitable organisations – The Infants’ Health Association (1904), The National League for Health, Maternity
and Child Welfare (1905), and The Woman’s League of Service for Motherhood (1910).
6. Motherhood and education
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Motherhood was a common feature in all discussions of infant mortality and child welfare in 20th century.
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Working class mothers criticised for poor hygiene, diet, and failing to breast feed.
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Easier to blame mothers than tackle the underlying issues of poverty.
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Lack of support by health visitors also experienced by middle class mothers.
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Decline in infant mortality after 1911. Reasons for its decline are complex – mix of improvements in diet,
living standards, hygiene, and greater family planning.
K.Woods 12.9.2015