Table VI.—Mortality after Childbirth in Five Years, up to the end of 1865, in Forty London Workhouse Infirmaries in which Deliveries took place. (Abstracted from Report on Metropolitan Workhouses.)
Deliveries Deaths from Puerperal Diseases Deaths from Accidents in Childbirth Deaths from Miasmatic Diseases Deaths from Consumption and Chest Diseases Deaths from all Other Causes Total Deaths
27 workhouses: 9,411 39 20 0 15 19 93
13 2,459 0 0 0 0 0 0

The City of London Lying-in Institution, during ten years, 1859–1868, had 4,966 deliveries, and 54 deaths—a rate of 10·9 per 1,000.

The British Lying-in Institution had 1,741 deliveries, and 25 deaths, in 11 years, 1858–1868, giving a death-rate of 14·3 per 1,000 (Table VIII.).

The mortality in Queen Charlotte’s Lying-in Hospital: 9,626 deliveries, and 244 deaths, from 1828 to 1868 (Table VII.), was 25·3 per 1,000.

Table VII.—Mortality in Queen Charlotte’s Lying-in Hospital, 1828 to 1868.
Deliveries Deaths from Puerperal Diseases Deaths from Accidents in Childbirth Deaths from Miasmatic Diseases Deaths from Consumption and Chest Diseases Deaths from all Other Causes Total Deaths
9,626 138 51 8 32 15 244

The Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, with 6,521 deliveries in the years 1857–1861, yielded 169 deaths—a death-rate of 26 per 1,000. But, if we take the years 1828–1861, with 63,621 deliveries, we find that the deaths were 924, and the death-rate only 14·5 per 1,000—the average annual number of deliveries being almost as many thousands as in Queen Charlotte’s Hospital were hundreds.

Table VIII.—Mortality per Thousand from all Causes after Delivery. (Abstracted from Official Reports and Returns.)
Places Deliveries Deaths Deaths per Thousand Deliveries
12 Parisian hospitals {1861 7,309 95·1
{1862 7,027 69·7
{1863 7,289 70·3
King’s College Hospital, 1862–7 780[[7]] 26 33·3
Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, 1857–61 6,521 169 26·0
Queen Charlotte’s Lying-in Hospital, 1828–68 9,626 244 25·3
British Lying-in Institution, 11 years, 1858–68 1,741 25 14·3
City of London Lying-in Hospital, 1859–68 4,966 54 10·9
8 military lying-in hospitals, 2 to 12 years 5,575 50 8·8
Liverpool Workhouse Lying-in Wards, 13 years, 1858–70 6,396 58 9·06
40 London workhouse infirmaries, 5 years 11,870 93 7·8
1 military lying-in hospital (a wooden hut) 1865–70 252 0 0
All England, 1867 768,349 3,933 5·1

The lying-in wards of King’s College Hospital, years 1862–1867 (Table IX.), gave 27 deaths—a death-rate of 33·3 per 1,000 on 780 deliveries.

Table IX.—Mortality after Childbirth in Lying-in Ward, King’s College Hospital, 1862 to 1867.
Deliveries Deaths from Puerperal Diseases Deaths from Accidents in Childbirth Deaths from Miasmatic Diseases Deaths from Consumption and Chest Diseases Deaths from all Other Causes Total Deaths
781[[8]] 23 1[[8]] 0 1 2 27

Lamentable as are these death-rates in many British institutions, they are small in comparison with those which have ruled in many foreign hospitals.