The Case for Birth Control: A Supplementary Brief and Statement of FactsSanger, Margaret
Science
The Case for Birth Control: A Supplementary Brief and Statement of Facts
Sanger, Margaret
Birth control; Eugenics
It will be seen by this table that Johnstown is among the 10 cities of
more than 50,000 population which had an infant mortality rate of 1910
in excess of 150 per 1,000 births. These 10 cities and their respective
rates are as follows: Lowell, Mass., 231; Holyoke, Mass., 213;
Manchester, N. H., 193; Fall River, Mass., 186; Detroit, Mich., 179; New
Bedford, Mass., 177; Lawrence, Mass., 167; Johnstown, Pa., 165;
Washington, D. C., 152; and Pittsburgh, Pa., 150.
It should be borne in mind that the absolute infant mortality rate of
134, computed for the group of babies included in this investigation,
that is, for those born in Johnstown in 1911, can not be compared with
any of the approximate rates in the foregoing table, since the basis of
computation is entirely different. But the method used in this report
seemed to be the only practicable one for our purpose, namely, to
measure the infant mortality rate in different districts of the city
where the babies are subjected to varying conditions.
Conditions similar to those existing in Johnstown were found in Chicago
by Dr. Alice Hamilton, Bacteriologist in the Memorial Institute for
Infectious Diseases, Hull House. The results of a study made of 1,600
families in the neighborhood was published in 1910. The investigation
was undertaken to find out the truth or falsity of a general feeling
among the district nurses that a high birth rate was accompanied by a
high death rate. It was found that a high birth rate was not so much
accompanied as outrun by a high death rate. The number of children
live-born was compared with the number of children who reached the age
of three, so it is a study of child mortality, rather than of infant
mortality. The child mortality rate rises and falls very much as does
the infant mortality rate in Johnstown. A table calculated from the data
of all the families shows an ascending mortality rate:
No. in Family Child Mortality Rate
4 children and less 118
6 children and more 267
7 children and more 280
8 children and more 291
9 children and more 303
Expressed in words this table says that child mortality increases as the
number of children per family increases, until we have a death rate in
families of eight and more, which is two and a half times as great as
that in families of four children and under.
FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE CHIEF, CHILDREN’S BUREAU, U. S. DEPARTMENT
OF LABOR, Washington,
October 7, 1916
INFANT MORTALITY—MANCHESTER
The findings of the bureau’s earlier study in Johnstown, Pa., are
confirmed in many respects by the findings in Manchester—the coincidence
of a high infant mortality rate with low earnings, poor housing,
mother’s work, and large families.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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