It is impossible to judge from statistics alone whether or not the work done by an individual woman, either her own housework or work for money, is so excessive as to affect her during pregnancy or while nursing to the extent of reacting on the health of the baby; but the fact is that the infant mortality rate is higher among the babies of wage-earning mothers than among others, being 188 as compared with a rate of 117.6 among the babies of nonwage-earning mothers. Wage-earning mothers and low-wage fathers are in practically the same groups, and it is difficult to secure an exact measurement of the comparative weight of the two factors in the production of a high infant mortality rate. TABLE 33.—DISTRIBUTION OF LIVE BIRTHS AND OF DEATHS DURING FIRST YEAR, AND INFANT MORTALITY RATE FOR BABIES OF WAGE-EARNING AND NONWAGE-EARNING MOTHERS, ACCORDING TO ANNUAL EARNINGS OF FATHER. ═════════════════╤═════════════════╤═════════════════╤═════════════════ ANNUAL EARNINGS │ MOTHER A WAGE │MOTHER NOT A WAGE│INFANT MORTALITY OF FATHER. │ EARNER. │ EARNER. │ RATE. ─────────────────┼────────┬────────┼────────┬────────┼────────┬──────── │ │ Number │ │ Number │ │ Mother │ Live │ of │ Live │ of │Mother a│ not a │births. │ deaths │births. │ deaths │ wage │ wage │ │in first│ │in first│earner. │earner. │ │ year. │ │ year. │ │ ─────────────────┼────────┼────────┼────────┼────────┼────────┼──────── Total │ 266│ 50│ 1,165│ 137│ 188.0│ 117.6 ═════════════════╪════════╪════════╪════════╪════════╪════════╪════════ Under $521 │ 105│ 26│ 114│ 30│ 247.6│ 263.2 $521 to $624 │ 53│ 8│ 112│ 18│ 150.9│ 160.7 $625 to $779 │ 48│ 6│ 176│ 18│ 127.1│ 102.3 $780 or over, or │ 60│ 10│ 763│ 71│ 166.7│ 93.1 “ample”[35] │ │ │ │ │ │ ─────────────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴──────── Footnote 35: See note on page 45. ILLEGITIMACY Of the 1,551 birth included in this investigation 34, or 2.2 per cent., occurred out of wedlock. Nine of the 32 illegitimate babies who were born alive died during their first year. It is recognized that these figures are a very small base from which to draw conclusions concerning the effect of illegitimacy on the infant mortality rate. It is of interest, nevertheless, to note that the findings for this small group are similar to those of countries which compute an infant mortality rate for legitimate and illegitimate children separately, that is, a rate for illegitimates more than twice as high as for children born in wedlock.