The fact that a mother takes up her housework in the early days of her baby’s life does not necessarily increase the danger of its death. In some cases, however, mothers stated that the quantity of their breast milk was noticeably impaired when they got up and resumed their work too soon. Naturally this would affect the baby’s nutrition. In other cases a mother’s cares and duties may be so absorbing that she can not give the baby full attention. Whatever the exact explanation, attention should be called to the greater frequency of infant deaths when the mother resumed household duties very soon after childbirth.
A statement of the time of the mother’s resumption of household duties in full, like that giving the time of resumption in part, shows that the native mothers have the longer period of rest.
| Table 29.—Distribution of Live Births and of Deaths During First Year, and Infant Mortality Rate, According to Time of Mother Resuming all Household Duties After Confinement, by Nativity of Mother. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TIME OF RESUMING ALL HOUSEHOLD DUTIES AFTER CONFINEMENT. | LIVE BIRTHS TO— | DEATHS DURING FIRST YEAR. | |||
| All mothers. | Native mothers. | Foreign mothers. | Total. | Infant mortality rate. | |
| Total | 1,463 | 815 | 648 | 196 | 134.0 |
| 8 days or less | 219 | 13 | 206 | 37 | 168.9 |
| 9 to 13 days | 182 | 132 | 50 | 30 | 164.8 |
| 14 days or more | 1,053 | 663 | 390 | 123 | 116.8 |
| Mother died or not reported | 9 | 7 | 2 | 6 | ([[29]]) |
[29]. Total live births less than 50; base therefore considered too small to use in computing an infant mortality rate.
The infant mortality rates for all mothers in the group just referred to, according to the time of resuming housework in full after childbirth, show fewer infant deaths proportionately when the mother has had a longer rest; that is, a rest of two weeks or more.
ECONOMIC FACTORS
EARNINGS OF FATHER
A grouping of babies according to the income of the father shows the greatest incidence of infant deaths where wages are lowest, and the smallest incidence where they are highest, indicating clearly the relation between low wages and ill health and infant deaths.
For all live babies born in wedlock the infant mortality rate is 130.7. It rises to 255.7 when the father earns less than $521 a year or less than $10 a week, and falls to 84 when he earns $1,200 or more or if his earnings are “ample.”[[30]] The variation in the infant mortality rate from one earnings group to another is not perfectly regular and consistent, but if any two or more consecutive groups are combined an invariable lowering of the infant mortality rate from one such combined group to that next higher results.
[30]. “Ample” as used in this report has a somewhat arbitrary meaning. When information concerning the father’s earnings was not available and the family showed no evidences of actual poverty, the word “ample” was used. If no information concerning earnings was available when, on the other hand, the family was clearly in a state of abject poverty, then the income was tabulated as “Under $521.”