In the Registrar-General’s Thirtieth Annual Report, 1867, there is an instructive series of tables, giving approximately the present normal death-rate among lying-in women in England.
One of these tables (abstracted on Table I.) shows that, including deliveries in lying-in hospitals, there were in England, during the year 1867, 768,349 births, and that 3,933 women died in childbed. This gives an approximate total mortality of 5·1 per 1,000 from all causes.
| Table I.—Mortality after Childbirth in England, 1867 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (Registrar-General’s Thirtieth Annual Report). | ||||||
| Total Births | Deaths from Accidents in Childbirth | Deaths from Puerperal Diseases | Deaths from Miasmatic Diseases | Deaths from Consumption and Chest Diseases | Deaths from all Other Causes | Total Deaths |
| 768,349 | 2,346 | 1,066 | 137 | 230 | 154 | 3,933 |
The causes of mortality are also given in Table I. as follows:—
1. There were 2,346 deaths by accidents of childbirth (hæmorrhage, convulsions, exhaustion, mania, &c.).
2. There were 1,066 deaths due to puerperal diseases (puerperal fever, puerperal peritonitis, metritis, pyæemia, &c.).
3. Of the remaining 521 deaths, 137 were due to non-puerperal fevers and eruptive fevers; 230 were occasioned by consumption and other chest diseases, and 154 by other causes.
4. By adding together deaths from puerperal diseases and those from fevers, we find that, out of a total mortality of 3,933, the deaths from diseases more or less connected with what is called ‘blood-poisoning’ amounted to 1,203, or rather more than 30 per cent. of the total mortality.
5. The mortality per 1,000 deliveries (or rather per 1,000 births) from each class of causes in England, in 1867, stands thus:—
| Accidents of childbirth | 3 | per | 1,000 |
| Puerperal diseases | 1·4 | „ | „ |
| Others, including non-puerperal fevers | ·7 | „ | „ |
| Total | 5·1 | „ | „ |