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
The mortality rate among infants who slept in a room with no other
person than their parents was much lower than among those who slept in a
room with more than two persons. The babies that slept in separate beds
also had a much lower infant mortality rate than those who did not sleep
alone, as shown in the next table. (Table omitted.)
In presenting statistics on sleeping and ventilation, only the babies
who lived at least one month have been considered, for the reason that
so many deaths during the first month of life were due to prenatal
causes.
The incidence shown in the foregoing table is significant, even though
it can by no means be deduced therefrom that the health of a large
proportion of babies was so impaired by sleeping with older and more or
less unhealthy persons that death resulted. But irregular night feeding
and overfeeding are undoubtedly harmful, and the mother is tempted to
subject the baby to this when it sleeps with her and disturbs her rest.
Of the 1,389 babies who lived at least one month, 600, or 43.2 per
cent., lived in homes where the baby slept in a room with not more than
two other persons. The fact that the baby slept in a room with no more
persons than its parents generally argues that the family’s means
permitted them to have one or more additional rooms for other members of
the family, but in other cases, of course, merely that there were no
other persons in the family.
Almost every home visited had means for good ventilation of the baby’s
room at night, yet but 604, or 43.5 per cent., of the 1,389 babies who
lived at least a month slept at night in well-ventilated rooms—that is,
in rooms where, according to the mother’s statement, a window was open
all night. Some mothers opened windows when the weather was neither cold
nor damp; or opened them in a hall or room adjoining that where the baby
slept; others emphatically stated that at night the windows were “always
shut tight.” The babies subjected to differences of ventilation show
corresponding variations in infant mortality rates.
A high death rate in badly ventilated homes can not be charged wholly to
bad air. The mother who did not, or could not, provide proper
ventilation was generally the mother without the means or the knowledge
necessary to enable her to care for her baby properly in other respects,
and yet the marked differences suggest that ventilation is itself a very
important ally of the baby in its first year of struggle for existence.
In many rooms that were poorly ventilated, windows were not opened for
the reason that the room was not properly heated and the houses
themselves were flimsy and drafty. The problem in such houses is to keep
warm. If the windows were frequently or constantly opened, the houses
would be too cold to live in. In some localities the outside air is so
laden with soot, ashes, dirt, and smoke that every effort is made to
keep it out of the house.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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